Solicitors

A solicitor who sent hundreds of offensive emails and tweets to the law firm acting for him in a dispute – and was convicted of a public order offence – has agreed to remove himself from the roll.

A proposal that in-house legal departments should be regulated as a separate regulated business unit within their organisations has been broadly welcomed by senior company lawyers.

Students could save as much as £38,000 when qualifying as a solicitor following the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination next September, a report has estimated.

A solicitor recorded by an undercover TV reporter giving advice on what he knew was a sham marriage has been struck off for the second time by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

A law firm owner whose practice of making improper transfers from client to office account was reported to the regulator “with a heavy heart” by a member of staff.

The SRA must work “even harder” through its Innovate programme to encourage technology that helps reduce digital exclusion, its new executive director for strategy and innovation said yesterday.

The decision on whether to approve the Solicitors Qualifying Examination has been delayed amid a call from groups representing more than 4,000 legal academics to reject it.

A veteran solicitor serving nearly nine years in prison after being convicted of multiple counts of historic indecent assault against children has been struck off.

An immigration solicitor who brought meritless judicial reviews has been fined £60,000 and banned for an indefinite period from making further applications.

A solicitor who used £100,000 from a client’s estate to pay debts to HM Revenue & Customs and an indemnity insurer before closing his firm has been struck off.

A personal injury solicitor has been sanctioned for allowing the claims management company that supplied almost all of his work to dictate the terms of clients’ engagement with his firm.

A conveyancer who recklessly facilitated a mortgage fraud before being convicted of three money laundering offences and then failing to surrender to bail has been struck off.

A law firm which surcharged more than 2,000 clients to help repay the loan it took out for a new case management system has been fined £30,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Legal advice privilege extends to communications with foreign lawyers working in-house even if they are not recognised or regulated as “professional lawyers”, the High Court has ruled.

A criminal law solicitor who used money from a jailed client for an appeal to stabilise his firm’s “precarious financial position” has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.