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Misconduct: Crossing the line

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13 January 2021 / John Gould
Issue: 7916 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Profession
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Post-Beckwith, John Gould provides an update on the regulation of conduct outside of practice
  • Ryan Beckwith v Solicitors Regulation Authority: putting the correct questions on the table for the approach to conduct which is not in the course of providing legal services.

It was a bold move to offer a two-part commentary on the regulation of conduct outside of practice just when the Divisional Court’s decision in Ryan Beckwith v Solicitors Regulation Authority [2020] EWHC 3231 (Admin) was on the horizon (see ‘Misconduct outside of legal practice’, 170 NLJ 7907, p14; Pt 2, 170 NLJ 7911, p15). By great good fortune, I seem to have largely escaped major error and can go forward with my nine lives intact to talk about what the law is rather than what I think it should be.

Beckwith is an important decision which is not going to be appealed. The approach to conduct which is not in the course of providing legal services, particularly where sex is involved, has not had a secure

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