Compliance & Regulation

Law firms will need to rethink their approach to alcohol at events as part of preparing for the new positive legal duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

A pupil barrister has been fined £500 for a series of foul-mouthed outbursts at a remote invigilator during an online ethics exam, which ended with him raising his middle finger to the camera.

A specialist sports law firm has been fined £36,000, and its COFA rebuked, for allowing its client account to be used as a banking facility.

A solicitor who transferred £15,000 that was long sat dormant in client account to his firm’s office account has agreed to remove himself from the roll of solicitors.

A trade association for financial advisers has called on the Financial Ombudsman Service to impose charges of £450 per case on law firms and CMCs making volume complaints.

A barrister jailed for 14 months for obtaining drugs from two men he was representing has been disbarred after his fourth appearance before a Bar disciplinary tribunal.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has outlined its “growing concern” that post-completion work is not being done properly and promptly.

The first proceedings at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over an alleged SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) began yesterday.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority should be “bolder” in its approach to third-party managed accounts, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has argued.

A general counsel has complained that she is unable to sign off the qualifying work experience (QWE) of trainee solicitors because she is a barrister.

The SRA must pay “immediate attention” to weaknesses in its authorisation process for new law firms in the wake of the Axiom Ince collapse, the Law Society has argued.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has agreed to regulate CILEX members if it decides to press ahead with changing regulator.

A woman struck off as a solicitor 24 years ago has failed in her second attempt to be restored to the roll, with a tribunal saying the passage of time did not of itself justify it.

The SRA has proposed that any fine it imposes on law firms should be at least £5,000, as well as ending fines for solicitors convicted of drink-driving.

A veteran solicitor who practised while suspended has been suspended again, although the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said it had “some reservations” about the sanction.