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A trainee legal executive has been fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for taking almost £24,000 from his law firm’s client account. BRM Solicitors said Joseph Aaron Cooper had betrayed its trust.

Three partners at well-known London law firm Fladgate have been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The 73-partner firm has said it is “fully supporting” the lawyers, who have all been accused by the Solicitors Regulation Authority of using the firm’s client account as a “banking facility”.

A sole practitioner who brought a “cataclysm” upon himself by failing to protect the interests of children when acting as a trustee, leading to them not receiving the legacies they should have done from two wills, has been struck off and ordered to pay £65,000 in costs. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said Timothy John Wilkinson “blamed everyone else”.

A sole practitioner who refused to close his firm after failing to find indemnity insurance has been struck off and ordered to pay £20,000 costs. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal described Anthony Alabi as having a “cavalier attitude to regulation”.

Small law firms have the most to lose if a Solicitors Qualifying Examination is introduced as it may downgrade the value of being part of the profession, a leading legal academic has warned. Professor Anthony Bradney said the exam could be a way for solicitors to “very rapidly lose their reputation”.