Legal Services

The former partner whose conduct in a dubious investment scheme led to the record £500,000 fine for US law firm Locke Lord last year has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/ex-locke-lord-partner-struck-off-for-misconduct-that-landed-his-firm-record-fine

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the solicitors it prosecutes have been warned that disciplinary tribunals are not there to rubber-stamp any agreed outcome they reach to avoid a full hearing

The former SFO director has made an application to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments which decides on the suitability of new jobs for former senior civil servants and government ministers

http://www.cityam.com/285801/outgoing-serious-fraud-office-boss-david-green-qc-talks

The unusual feature in CMOC's case was that CMOC could not identify named individuals in its application for permission to serve out of the jurisdiction.

https://www.addleshawgoddard.com/en/insights/insights-briefings/2018/litigation/resolve-spring-2018/injunction-against-persons-unknown-in-fraud-claim/

The number of qualified accountants’ reports due to rule breaches has fallen by two-thirds since the rules were changed in 2015, but the amount then being investigated for possible rule breaches has tripled, it has emerged.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/investigation-of-law-firm-accounts-reports-tripled-in-two-years-impact-report-shows

Criminal defence specialist James Turner takes over the reins at society as it celebrates its 200th anniversary

https://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/legal/birmingham-law-society-appoints-new-14596657

Self-employed barristers are “data controllers” and not “data processors” for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as they need to be able to act independently of instructing solicitors, the Bar Council has said

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/barristers-are-not-data-processors-under-gdpr-bar-council-tells-solicitors

Criminal law solicitors unable to find a barrister because of their protest over legal aid fees “may need to assist the client to represent themselves as best they can” if the court will not grant an adjournment, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has warned.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/legal-aid-strike-solicitors-should-help-clients-represent-themselves-if-they-cant-find-barrister-says-sra

The link between ethnicity and success on the Bar professional training course and in attaining pupillage is more nuanced than the big gap between white and non-white candidates presented by the Bar Standards Board (BSB), the Bar Council has claimed.

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/bar-council-finds-mixed-picture-of-success-for-bme-graduates-getting-bptc-place-and-pupillage

A solicitor who “abrogated any responsibility” for her firm’s finances, allowing her fellow partner to take £512,000 from its accounts over five years to feed his gambling habit, has been fined £20,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).

https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/solicitor-abrogated-any-responsibility-for-firms-finances-while-partner-used-money-to-fund-gambling-habit