Solicitors

Unlimited paid holiday leave has helped raise overall productivity, improved teamwork and reduced sick leave, according to one of the first law firms to adopt it.

Five associations representing law lecturers and academics have urged the Solicitors Regulation Authority to delay the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam.

Former Freshfields partner Ryan Beckwith is not a “future risk” to the public or the profession despite his “inappropriate conduct” with a junior colleague, the SDT has said in its long-awaited ruling.

The Law Society and Bar Council have strongly attacked plans by the Legal Ombudsman to extend its publication of information about complaints, arguing that it would not help consumers.

A solicitor who took holiday sickness leads from unregulated claims management companies has been rebuked by his regulator – as has one convicted of assaulting an emergency worker.

A former civil servant who also held a senior role at the Co-operative Group has been appointed to the new role at the Solicitors Regulation Authority of executive director for strategy and innovation.

A High Court family judge has ordered that public funds be made available to pay for lay advocates to support intellectually impaired parents so as to lift the load from their solicitors.

An experienced solicitor who acted in a “surprisingly incompetent manner” has been heavily fined for failing to clarify whether instructions from a client living in Pakistan were genuine.

An immigration lawyer who made “catastrophic decisions” to channel fees from an “inherently vulnerable” asylum seeker into her personal bank account has been struck off.

Legal advice privilege only applies where documents were created with the “dominant purpose” of seeking or providing legal advice, appeal judges have ruled.

A solicitor and her boyfriend who defrauded the taxpayer out of £63,000 by inflating translation costs for legal aid documents are facing jail.

A solicitor who was convicted of harassment offences in Norway at the start of the century, and did not report them to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, has been struck off.

Two solicitors have been handed 13-year director disqualifications after they misled people to invest £1.4m in a legal insurance product they never actually developed.

A “disorganised” legal aid lawyer who said he wanted “to direct his time and focus to the legal work” of his practice has been fined £25,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

A solicitor who admitted that he had “lost control of events completely” in the final months of his firm – due to his “ineptitude and incompetence” – has been suspended for two years.