Solicitor

The Chancery Division ruled on a solicitor’s application to set aside statutory demands served by the Law Society in respect of the costs of an intervention into his practice. The solicitor had been, for regulatory purposes, the ‘manager’ of a company, through which legal services had been provided. The court rejected his contention that the effect of the Administration of Justice Act 1985 (the 1985 Act) was that, where a solicitor was a manager of a company, all powers of intervention against the solicitor personally, derived from the Solicitors Act 1974 (the 1974 Act), had been lost, and, that to that extent, the 1974 Act had been repealed. The court held that, on the true construction of para 32(1)(d)(iv) of Sch 2 to the 1985 Act, a manager of a recognised body was capable of having his or her own practice and it was not a ground for setting aside statutory demands. However, the statutory demands were