John Hyde

3 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

Around half of compliance officers in law firms have admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the demands placed on them, as news emerged of another significant fine for breaching money laundering regulations. The Solicitors Regulation Authority announced that it had fined Gordons Partnership £77,784 for failing to comply with the rules on client checks for three years until November last year.

3 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

A claims firm based in the north west has been named on a list of companies ordered to pay back shortfalls in the national living and national minimum wage. Equitas Solicitors from Preston failed to pay £15,412 to 72 workers over a period from 2016 to 2020, according to a list published by the Department for Business and Trade. The 518 employers and businesses named have since paid back what they owe to staff and been fined up to 200% of their underpayment.

3 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

Dozens of staff turfed out of their office when the Solicitors Regulation Authority shut their firm down are owed three months’ redundancy pay, an employment tribunal has ruled. Employment Judge Ainscough found that the 39 named employees at Liverpool claims firm BPS Solicitors were all told at a meeting last August that the SRA had ordered it to cease trading. All staff were immediately told to leave the premises.

3 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

Regulators should be doing more to tackle negative perceptions of the profession as well as focus on improving ethics. That was the message from the Law Society this week as it responded to a consultation by the oversight regulator on how to change lawyers’ behaviour and conduct. The Legal Services Board has said that it wants to stem a decline in ethical standards and bring about a ‘significant shift’ in how ethics is taught, overseen and supported.

3 weeks ago | lawgazette.co.uk | John Hyde

Top 100 firm Ward Hadaway has announced it will become the latest legal business to open an office in central Birmingham. The firm’s expansion – its first south of its three northern strongholds – continues the trend in recent weeks of moves into the area in and around the city’s Colmore Row. Ward Hadaway has outlined ambitions to double turnover in the next 10 years and is also in talks to merge with Teesside firm The Endeavour Partnership.