Tag Results
QASA under pressure with sudden move to pilot scheme and barristers up in arms
Thursday, 22 September 2011The controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates may now be subject to a full pilot, it has emerged, at the same time as criminal barristers are up in arms at Legal Services Commission plans to use the scheme to end payments for QCs, which they say threatens its whole future.
Tags: bar standards board, ILEX Professional Standards, legal aid, QASA, Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Barristers, Legal Executives, News, Solicitors
Law Society: solicitors do not trust SRA
Tuesday, 20 September 2011Solicitors do not trust their regulator enough to raise concerns with it or think it will act if they do, the Law Society has claimed, offering to act as a formal conduit between the two. It also accused the Solicitors Regulation Authority of acting in a way that can seriously damage a solicitor’s reputation
Tags: Law Society, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
Founder of novel trainee secondment business defends model from critics
Tuesday, 20 September 2011The lawyer behind a new outsourcing venture that recruits trainee solicitors and then seconds them to law firms and in-house legal departments to do their training contracts has been defending the model from a volley of instant criticism.
Tags: Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in hrtraining, News
Revealed: SRA mulls leniency scheme for law firm whistleblowers
Monday, 19 September 2011The Solicitors Regulation Authority is formulating a whistleblowers’ charter and leniency scheme for those who reveal misconduct at law firms and alternative business structures, Legal Futures can report. Co-operation will be accepted as mitigation.
Tags: compliance, Financial Services Authority, Office of Fair Trading, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
SRA: don’t blame us for ABS delay
Thursday, 8 September 2011The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has strenuously denied it was responsible for the slippage of the timetable for licensing alternative business structures. On Tuesday, Professor Stephen Mayson accused regulators of failing the market.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, News
Big rise in law firms incorporating to combat practice funding problems
Wednesday, 24 August 2011The number of incorporated law firms has risen sharply in the past year, with more than a fifth of legal practices now limited companies. According to Solicitors Regulation Authority figures, 2,400 of the 10,973 law firms as of July were incorporated companies, compared to 1,898 a year before – a rise of 26%.
Tags: limited liability partnership, LLP, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Finance, News
Solicitor suspended for failing to pay ARP premium as SRA vows crackdown
Wednesday, 24 August 2011The Solicitors Regulation Authority has welcomed the suspension of a solicitor who failed to pay his assigned risks pool premium as it vowed to step up enforcement efforts against other such firms with the end of the indemnity year looming.
Tags: assigned risks pool, professional indemnity insurance, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Indemnity insurance, News, Solicitors
Getting to grips with COLPs and COFAs
Wednesday, 24 August 2011Frank Maher, a partner at Liverpool law firm Legal Risk LLP, outlines the new requirements on law firms to appoint compliance officers and the difficult issues they raise for practices in choosing who to appoint and the extent of the role.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Features, News, Solicitors
Launch of ABSs clears major hurdle
Friday, 19 August 2011Would-be alternative business structures unhappy with decisions taken by the Solicitors Regulation Authority will be able to appeal to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, it has been decided, in a significant step towards the introduction of ABSs.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Legal Services Board, News
SRA highlights investor scrutiny as it prepares to start licensing ABSs in “early 2012”
Thursday, 18 August 2011The Solicitors Regulation Authority is unlikely to start licensing alternative business structures (ABSs) until 2012, it has confirmed. The news comes as the authority spelt out the detailed level of information about investors in prospective ABSs that it will expect to see.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, external investment, Legal Services Act, Solicitors Regulation Authority, stock market listing
Posted in Alternative business structures, News