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Compliance crackdown ahead?

24 March 2023 / Clare Hughes-Williams , Tom Bedford
Issue: 8018 / Categories: Features , Profession , Regulatory , Fraud
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Clare Hughes-Williams & Tom Bedford examine concerns about the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s increasing powers on SLAPPs & economic crime
  • The Solicitors Regulation Authority has indicated its intention to crack down on economic crime and strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs), with the penalties for transgressions looking set to increase.
  • The legal profession will need to find a way to balance client interests with its duties under the code of conduct.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) already has wide ranging powers which it uses to regulate the profession and, in extreme cases, to close law firms.

Until last year, the maximum fine that the SRA could impose without referring a case to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) was capped at £2,000. In July 2022, the cap increased to £25,000 and may rise further when the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is introduced.

Two critical areas of focus for the SRA are anti-money laundering and the prevention of economic crime generally, and strategic litigation against public participation, or SLAPPs.

SLAPPS

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NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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