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Compliance and Ethics in Law Firms provides guidance on SRA regulations for non-lawyers working in law firms and for those who are responsible for ensuring that they comply with the SRA’s rules (such as COLPs, COFAs and learning and development professionals). There are regulatory and legal consequences both for these individuals and for their firms if they fail to demonstrate the correct behaviours. It is therefore essential that everyone who works in a law firm understands the compliance and ethical requirements of SRA regulations.

The second edition of this book has been updated to aid compliance with the SRA Standards and Regulations, which replaced the SRA Handbook in November 2019, as well as relevant tribunal decisions. The text has been revised to take account of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, the Criminal Finances Act 2017, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

These changes are of great significance and this edition will explain them and provide the reader with a toolkit of regulatory and ethical knowledge which can be applied to their specific circumstances.

 

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Reviews

While lawyers are now, one year on, familiar with the SRA Standards and Regulations, it is perhaps less well understood that those same ethical and conduct requirements also encompass their unqualified co-workers in legal practice. This newly updated edition addresses that knowledge gap, discussing essential ethics and compliance requirements for non-lawyers. In the author’s own words, all law firm staff must “understand what acceptable behaviour looks like in a law firm”. Get them a copy now.

Fiona du Feu, Owner, My Compliance Colleague

Contents

1. Introduction,  2. The Regulatory Landscape,  3. The SRA Standards and Regulations,  4. The SRA Principles 2019,  5. The Two SRA Codes of Conduct 2019 - Essentials for All Staff,  6. Other Conduct Requirements,  7. Complying with the SRA Accounts Rules 2019,  8. Practising Certificates, Job Titles and the Risk of Holding Out,  9. Key Legislation for Law Firms,  10. Compliance in a Nutshell,  11. Conclusion, and   Appendices 

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About the Author

Tracey Calvert is a lawyer who has worked both in private practice and in-house. She has been a senior ethics adviser and then a policy executive with the Law Society and the SRA. She now runs her own consultancy business which provides compliance and ethics services. She is the author of several books, contributes to Cordery on Legal Services and is on the board of the Law Society’s Legal Compliance bulletin.