Solicitors

City law firm Clyde & Co has been given permission to pay into court $325m it is holding in an escrow account, after an American judge removed the risk of it being prosecuted for doing so.

There must be a “third way” of ensuring that qualified lawyers are competent without relying on disciplinary proceedings, the director of regulation and policy at the Legal Services Board has said.

A tribunal has rejected an appeal by a solicitor against a £1,000 fine imposed by the SRA for breaching a written agreement he made during probate litigation.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority made 26 reports of suspected money laundering by solicitors to the National Crime Agency last year, involving more than £200m in possible criminal proceeds.

The disparity between the best and worst legal practice course providers has continued to grow, with the attainment gap for White and BAME students remains stubbornly large.

A solicitor has had her claim for victimisation by the Law Society struck out by an employment tribunal on the basis that, as the chair of a committee, she was not an employee or office-holder.

A former partner at Wolstenholmes – the conveyancing firm whose catastrophic collapse cost the profession £13m – can become a partner once more after a ban was removed.

A solicitor who was struck off more than 20 years ago after being found in contempt of court and breach of undertakings to the High Court, has been restored to the roll.

A barrister was not liable to her instructing solicitors for the fees they claimed they lost out on as a result of her alleged negligence, the High Court has ruled.

A junior solicitor struck off last year after she left confidential documents in a locked case on a train is to have a retrial to reconsider the impact of her mental health on her actions.

A newly qualified solicitor who said she was “blinded by panic” when she lied about sending an email containing personal data to the wrong person, has been spared a strike-off.

A solicitor who forged a qualified colleague’s signature on conveyancing documents while still a trainee has been struck off, with a tribunal rejecting her claim that she had been authorised to do it.

The High Court has condemned an “utterly hopeless” urgent application by national legal aid firm Duncan Lewis, relating to six asylum judicial reviews, which was “bound to fail”.

A solicitor who plundered his firm’s client account for nearly £400,000, while failing to redeem a mortgage or pay stamp duty as required, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

HM Land Registry published its first Digital Identity Standard last week, offering conveyancers a ‘safe harbour’ if they use it to verify their client’s identity digitally.