Legal Services

The country’s largest trade union has criticised the Law Society for planning redundancies instead of furloughing staff, as well as slashing its presence outside of London.

A barrister who deliberately gave the court a wrong address “with the intention of obtaining a divorce fraudulently” has been disbarred.

A solicitor who moved client funds around different accounts to hide the money he was taking for himself – and caused pay-outs from the SRA Compensation Fund – has been struck off.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/solicitor-used-rubber-cheques-to-hide-client-money-misuse

A leading legal academic has been appointed to lead the independent review into the difficulties experienced by students who sought to sit the centralised Bar professional training course this summer.

A solicitor has been struck off after trying to intimidate an officer from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) by saying he was “genius level talent” who would sue the officer and “end the SRA”.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/genius-solicitor-struck-off-after-threatening-to-end-the-sra

A law firm which held money on behalf of its then litigation funding subsidiary has been fined for allowing its client account to be used as a banking facility.

https://www.litigationfutures.com/news/law-firm-fined-for-holding-funders-money-in-client-account

Negligent conveyancers should not be able to avoid liability because it emerges later that their client was engaged in mortgage fraud, the Supreme Court has ruled.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/negligent-conveyancers-cannot-dodge-liability-because-of-fraud

An employed barrister convicted of fraud after claiming expenses he was not entitled to has avoided being thrown out of the profession by a Bar disciplinary tribunal.

The new way of qualifying as a solicitor, including passing a centralised, two-part examination, will go live from 1 September 2021 after the Legal Services Board (LSB) approved the reforms.

A personal injury lawyer who inflated costs, put false information before a court, misled her insurer and “wrecked lives” has been struck off.