The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales. It is responsible for setting and enforcing standards for the legal profession, and has the power to fine solicitors or firms who fail to meet these standards.

Recently, the SRA has announced that it will be increasing its fines for solicitors and firms who breach its rules: The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill removes the statutory fining limit for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), allowing the SRA to set its own limits on financial penalties imposed for economic crime disciplinary matters. Since July 2022, the SRA has been able to fine ‘traditional firms’ and staff up to £25k, which would represent 90% of all fines previously issued by the Tribunal. 

Under the new fining powers, a Bridgend-based firm was slapped last month with a £15k fine plus SRA costs.

Employees of law firms are regularly confronted with ethical dilemmas in the course of their work. These dilemmas stem from conflicting principles in the ethical code and the complex nature of legal work. VinciWorks’ new course, Ethics for Law Firms, part of the larger SRA training suite, introduces learners to the foundations of ethical thinking and provides the tools for how to deconstruct dilemmas, extract the conflicting principles, evaluate the situation and make a considered decision. 

Unwanted and offensive messages

A former IT service desk analyst at Pinsent Masons has been banned from working in the legal industry for sending “offensive” messages to a colleague. He sent a number of messages to another member of staff using the firm’s communication systems which contained offensive language directed to the recipient. This is an essential reminder that the SRA’s Standards and Regulations apply to all those who work in a law firm, whether legally qualified or not! If you would like your staff to be more aware of this, please get in touch with Compliance Office to learn more about their courses.

Further, a former partner at Capsticks has agreed with the SRA that he will remove himself from the Roll of Solicitors for three years and accepted a rebuke. He sent numerous inappropriate and unwanted messages that could have been interpreted as sexual in nature to a junior colleague (of whom he was line manager) over a period of months. In addition, he made inappropriate comments about her sex life, her becoming pregnant and her taking maternity leave.

This update summarises the latest SRA guidance and rules. If you would like any guidance on anything SRA-related, book a free consultation with Compliance Office now.

Labelling letters as ‘private and confidential’ and/or ‘without prejudice’

The SRA plans to issue further guidance on when litigators are allowed to label letters as ‘private and confidential’ and/or ‘without prejudice’. This follows letters being sent to a Mr Neidle by lawyers (Osborne Clarke) for former Chancellor Nadeem Zahawi which accused him of libel. Osborne Clarke asserted that the letters were confidential and warned of “serious consequences” if he published them. Mr Neidle published the letters and wrote to the SRA saying it was “plainly incorrect as a matter of law” that calling letters ‘confidential’ or ‘without prejudice’ meant they could not be published in these circumstances. In response, Juliet Oliver, General Counsel for the SRA, said that they “plan (amongst other things) specifically to address the practice of labelling correspondence as ‘private and confidential’ and/or ‘without prejudice’, and to address the conditions under which doing so may be a breach of our requirements.” This could represent quite a shift in expectations for what is a fairly common practice engaged by some lawyers.

In August, the SRA announced that it plans to check all law firm websites for compliance with its Transparency Rules. Remember, whatever services you offer, you need to publish details of your complaints procedure and a copy of the SRA’s clickable logo on your website. We are aware that the SRA is being rather picky about the wording of specific points. For example, they were unhappy that a link on a firm’s website complaints policy went to the main www.sra.org.uk website rather than to a specific page on that site. If you have a website that offers services such as conveyancing, probate, immigration, employment tribunals or motoring offences you have to publish details about these services, pricing information and information about who delivers them. They will be cross-referencing their findings against the self-declarations made by firms stating they were fully compliant. We published a free 16-point checklist for law firm websites last year. If you would like to talk to us about a website audit or some support in this area please get in touch.