Solicitors

Two well-known law firms have accepted fines from the SRA – one for allowing its client account to be used as a banking facility and the other for holding disbursements in its office account.

A solicitor struck off for making false statements to the Mueller inquiry into alleged Russian involvement in the election of US president Donald Trump has received a presidential pardon.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Council for Licensed Conveyancers have been given a clean bill of health by the Legal Services Board in its latest assessment of regulators’ performance.

It is likely that criminals launder “hundreds of millions” of pounds with the inadvertent aid of conveyancers across the UK, the government has warned. London litigation firms are also being targeted.

The High Court has rejected an appeal from a solicitor struck off for persuading a vulnerable client to pay £4,700 into her personal bank account.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has failed in its bid to sell two properties to recoup £354,000 of the costs of intervening in a solicitor’s practice.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will not appeal the High Court decision in the Ryan Beckwith case, stressing that the ruling was confined to its facts.

The Law Society of Scotland has criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s call for the government not to exempt small law firms from paying the proposed economic crime levy.

There was a muted reaction to yesterday’s call from the Competition and Markets Authority for a review of legal regulation, with CILEx the most prominent supporter.

A solicitor who allowed her struck-off partner to continue his involvement in their practice, and failed to obtain client consent before transferring matters to an unregulated firm, has been fined £2,000.

Pro bono work has become a “mainstream part of legal education” and a significant number of law schools plan to integrate it with the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, a major study has found.

Small law firms should not be exempt from the economic crime levy the government wants to introduce to help tackle money laundering, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

One of the leading figures in legal education has hailed the introduction next year of the SQE as a “revolution”, with another saying it will break down the barriers between academia and the profession.

A solicitor who failed in his “basic duties” around anti-money laundering has been fined £2,000 – rather than up to £50,000 his misconduct deserved – because he has agreed to leave the profession.

Men and solicitors from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds continue to feature disproportionately in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s enforcement work, new figures have shown.