COLP/COFA separation could have had ‘unintentional consequences’ as SRA outlines next steps
The Solicitors Regulations Authority has confirmed it will “work with stakeholders, including through working groups” to identify alternatives to the proposals to separate compliance officer roles from those with unilateral decision making. Last month the SRA said it would “pause” those plans after it faced backlash from the profession. Now the regulator says it acknowledged […]
Sole practitioner struck off after practising without insurance and misleading SRA
The sole practitioner of a law firm has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) and ordered to pay costs of over £45,000 after he was found to have acted “dishonestly”. Andrew Lee, the sole director, manager and compliance officer of London-based firm Prometheus Law Ltd, continued to act for clients despite his […]
PHP security flaw hits property websites and technology
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has urged its regulated community, and others, to “take action” in the wake of an issue with the PHP programming language used by many websites and technology companies. A critical cybersecurity flaw in the programming language has triggered widespread global internet disruption with thousands of websites being taken offline […]
Nearly two thirds of compliance leaders expect budgets to increase, new research finds
New research finds nearly two thirds of compliance leaders in conveyancers and legal firms expect budgets to increase amid growing pressures. A study conducted by Thirdfort, of 200 compliance leaders found 61% of respondents are planning for their firm’s anti-money laundering (AML) budget to increase in the next year. Just 6% expect a cut, down from […]
‘Your First Home’ must learn lessons of ‘Help to Buy,’ SAM conveyancing warns
A week before the government is set to unveil its ‘Your First Home’ scheme for first-time buyers, analysis of the previous government’s ‘Help to Buy’ scheme suggests it inflated new-build prices and helped stagnate the market. Help to Buy, which offered first-time buyers government-backed equity loans on new-builds, inflated new-build prices by 70.1%, according to […]
How to secure more conveyancing work without a significant price drop
One of the interesting features of the conveyancing market recently has been the number of conversations I’ve have had with firms wanting to increase the amount of work they receive through distribution/panel partners like ourselves. I can understand why. Every conveyancing firm has people to employ, infrastructure to support and capacity it wants to utilise, […]