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Lisa Dixon from the Institute of Legal Finance & Management argues that firms should consider issuing separate terms and conditions with their client-care letters that deal specifically with the issues around client funds.

The High Court has expressed surprise that the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal does not publish guidance on the sanctions it might impose, in a judgment overturning fines levied against four partners at a firm where a member of staff stole over £100,000. The case should give “encouragement to those who have been poorly treated by the tribunal”, it has been claimed.

If, in a post outcomes-focused regulation world, all new firms have been given a clean bill of health by their regulator, there is a case for reopening the assigned risks pool to them because there might be other, less good reasons that they have not been able to obtain insurance, particularly if they are BME firms.

Many accountants are failing both to qualify their reports and to blow the whistle on solicitors’ wrongdoing, the chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales’ solicitors group said last week. Only 35% of accountants’ reports are qualified – despite the intricate nature of the rules – while hardly any accountants have blown the whistle a year after the rules were changed to require it.

My name is Alison Gorringe. I am the CEO of the Institute of Legal Cashiers & Administrators, based in Sidcup, Kent. I am saddened to hear and read bad press about the legal profession.