Junior lawyers are an ‘easy target’ for the SRA, says top QC
The SRA is likely to continue prosecuting ‘easy targets’ for ethical breaches, despite widespread criticism of recent disciplinary cases involving junior lawyers.
That was the conclusion reached by Geoffrey Williams QC at a recent webinar hosted by Jonathon Bray (‘Not safe for work: Where are the boundaries for solicitors?’).
He continued that regulators should instead focus on tackling the firms creating these toxic workplaces because harmful cultures result in solicitors making poor ethical decisions.
Mr Williams and his fellow silk, Jeremy Phillips QC, were part of a panel discussing the boundaries between a solicitor’s professional and private life.
Also on the panel were catastrophic injury solicitor Helen Clifford and compliance experts Rachael Eyre and Jonathon Bray.
The panel discussed:
- Toxic workplaces and mental health
- The effect of lockdown
- Lessons from the Beckwith case
Read the full post for an overview of the discussion.
Law firm mergers and acquisitions can offer great benefit to buyers and sellers
Philip Lewis says that even before Covid-19, the legal sector was seeing significant activity in law firm mergers and acquisitions.
The likelihood is that this will continue as practices grapple with increased insurance costs, the end of furlough and squeezed margins.
Mergers between two well-suited firms can be beneficial for both parties.
For the buyer, it can mean an increase in fees with little or no financial risk. This might be because the sale and purchase agreement includes provisions for the consideration to be reduced pound for pound if the first year’s fees don’t at least equal the purchase price. Or because partners in the selling firm become consultants for the “purchaser” and receive a percentage of the fees they generate.
For the seller, it can represent the best option if they want to continue to practice, but don’t want the burden of increased insurance costs (including run-off insurance if they are looking to close the practice) and difficulties in recruiting qualified staff. And it can provide up-and-coming lawyers and junior partners with a development or succession plan that wouldn’t have been appealing or available within the existing practice.
How to avoid common breaches of the SRA Accounts Rules
Claire Ambrose, Chartered Accountant with Bishop Fleming, provides timely guidance on a few common breaches of the SRA Accounts Rules.
In this article Claire covers:
- Residual balances
- Bank reconciliations
- SRA Accounts Rules breaches – to report or not to report?
This is a must-read for all COFAs.
News and Guidance
Law Society Updates
- Major update – Residual client balances
- New – Providing services and taking on roles outside your practice as a solicitor – Covers roles such as being a trustee, school governor, NED etc.
- Updated – Closing down your practice: regulatory requirements
- Updated: Compliance officers
- Updated: Who owns the file?
- Updated: Outsourcing
- Updated: In-house practice: regulatory requirements
- Updated: Client information requirements
- Updated: Legal professional privilege
- Q&A: What is the effect of a Section 44B notice from the SRA?
- Q&A: When acting on multiple retainers, can I rely on client care information I’ve already provided?
SRA Updates
- Updated guidance: Transparency in price and service
- Deadline: Solicitors urged to respond to frozen asset list if needed – check the sanctions list and report to OFSI by 15 October 2021 if you are holding frozen assets
- Event: Anti-money laundering – guidance for trust and company service providers (webinar)
Other Updates
- SRA not doing enough to enforce transparency rules, says the Legal Services Board in a draft statement (‘Empowering Consumers’). Legal regulators may need to go further in price transparency mandates.
- LexisNexis Bellwether report 2021 – always an interesting read. This year’s report is surprisingly chipper, with a majority of small firms reporting strong performance and confidence for the future. PII costs are identified as the biggest threat to the sector. Most firms see working from home (at least in part) to continue indefinitely.
Webinars
Thanks to everyone who attended this week’s webinar (‘Not Safe For Work: Where are the boundaries for solicitors?’).
And a huge thanks to Jeremy Phillips QC, Geoffrey Williams QC (together, The Disciplinary Team), Helen Clifford and Rachael Eyre for their contribution and guiding us safely through a sensitive topic.
See the first item in this newsletter for an overview of the session. Unfortunately, the recording failed on this occasion (thanks, Zoom).
Next session
Next month’s session will be of interest to law firm leaders who are interested in employee ownership. We have some excellent speakers lined up to tell all about the magic of Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs).
Disciplinary decisions
- Seth Lovis – struck off for double funding personal injury claims. His firm collapsed 2019, owing over £4m to litigation funders.
- Mohammed Arshad Amin – struck off for failing to comply with statutory demands made by the SRA. The solicitor was the sole director of Octagon Solicitors, which was closed in 2020 owing run-off premium to insurers.
- Mark Reginald Stuart Hodge struck off after serving 5 and a half years of an 11 year sentence for rape and sexual assault.
- Milo Molfa rebuked following a drink driving conviction.
- Denning Legal (a firm) – fined £18,000 for working with a struck off solicitor.
- Nina Koushi – suspended for 6 months for deliberately using a disabled parking badge when not entitled to do so.
And a raft of career-ending ‘strike offs’ for unqualified employees under Section 43 of the Solicitors Act:
- Chantelle Dallas – paralegal banned from the profession for recording 83 calls on a case management system that did not in fact take place
- Ravinderjit Gataurda – banned for backdating documents
- Alan Edwards – litigation executive banned for altering dates on counsel’s advice on quantum and misleading the court
- Daniel Hall – trainee banned for altering dates on emails to intentionally mislead a colleague about work carried out on conveyancing files
- Allison Copeland – legal executive banned for fabricating documents on client files
- Jaqueline Wilkinson – COFA banned for transferring £140k of residual client balances to the office account
- Sarah Aikenhead – secretary banned for stealing client money
