The criminal finding is now final. What the SRA does with it was always the more interesting question. Andrew Milne, a solicitor of 64, has lost his appeal against conviction for stalking the legal blogger Daniel Cloake. The appeal was heard over six days at Snaresbrook Crown Court before His Honour Judge Timothy Greene and two magistrates, and was refused yesterday.

Knights completed its acquisition of Moore Barlow on 2 November in a deal valued at £27m, adding offices in Guildford, Lymington, Richmond and Southampton. It is one of Knights' largest acquisitions to date, and the firm says it now makes Knights the largest legal and professional services business in the UK regions.

Baroness Chakrabarti has tabled an amendment to the Courts and Tribunals Bill that would stop advocates being held in contempt for reminding a jury of the principle of jury equity. A committee of the House of Lords has begun line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill.

FCA takeover of AML supervision reaches the Commons: what the Law Society's warning means for a small firm

On Tuesday the Ministry of Justice published its response to Richard Lloyd's review of the Legal Services Board, and accepted every recommendation in it. The headline is a comprehensive review of legal services regulation: where the boundaries sit, how complicated the system has become, and what AI is doing to it. The detail, which matters more, is that it will not commit to a deadline.

On Tuesday, the Commons justice select committee described the government's response to its own legal aid report as "highly disappointing" and "inadequate". The July report painted the bleakest picture yet of the sector, accused the lord chancellor of failing in his statutory duty, and made 58 recommendations. The response, the committee said, lacked the commitments needed to deliver the vision. Anyone running a legal aid practice read that and felt tired. I understand

On Monday, Legal Futures reported that the Crown Prosecution Service had, for the second time this year, put a fictitious authority before the High Court. The case was R v J, said to be a 2024 decision, cited three times in the written record of a decision to continue a prosecution. Lord Justice Holgate and Mr Justice Wall called it unsatisfactory but found it did not affect the outcome. In July, the CPS had already admitted putting AI-hallucinated cases before the High Co

The SRA's accounts rules require systems and controls appropriate to the nature and volume of client transactions. The question is not whether you have documented processes. It is whether they still work when the people running them are in different places.

No firm closes on a Tuesday afternoon because of one bad decision. It closes because of a hundred ordinary ones, each of which seemed sensible at the time. That is the uncomfortable lesson in the Law Society Gazette's in-depth piece this week on the growing spate of insolvencies across the small and medium-sized law firm sector.

A policy only works if the person opening the file knows what it asks of them.

Nov 2026 Newsletter Views From The Fraxinus Business Associates Perspective Welcome to our November update. As the year draws to a close, this edition looks at three practical questions to help your firm plan its compliance work for 2027. We also flag two regulatory developments worth keeping in view. Is your firm ready for 2027? A useful year-end review does not need to become a large project. Start with three questions. If an answer is unclear, record what needs checking an

Monthly Regulatory Briefing: November 2026 Welcome to the first Fraxinus Monthly Regulatory Briefing. Each month we pick out what the regulators published that matters to small law firms, say what it could mean in practice, and show where it fits in a compliance review. This edition covers late September to 26 October 2026. The three that matter most The SRA's AML annual report for 2025/26 (22 October). The SRA completed 966 AML compliance assessments in the year to 5 April 2

The first of Ashley’s regular Fraxinus Regulatory Briefing podcasts breaks down the latest SRA compliance trends: sharp increases in AML enforcement and fines, the push for evidence-based controls, and new AI usage guidance. Law firms must tighten independent file reviews, clarify governance roles, and ensure staff understand and properly use AI. Proactive policy checks and staying updated on regulatory consultations are critical to avoid penalties and maintain compliance. Cl

Blind Justice UK helps people who face court without a lawyer. Ashley Barwick on the charity, its founder Edward Romain, why its work matters for access to justice and why Fraxinus backs it.

A policy only works if the person opening the file knows what it asks of them.

Firms are getting better at policies. The files are where the SRA is still finding gaps.

The blanket rule has gone for now. A conversation about who holds your compliance roles, and how independent they are, has not.

You do not need a technology strategy. You need six decisions written down and a person who checks them.

A one-hour exercise a practice manager can run this week, built around what the SRA actually asks for.

A one-hour exercise a practice manager can run this week, built around what the SRA actually asks for.