Thought Leadership Archives | Page 12 of 80

SRA Thought Leadership
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6 min read

Update: New rules and guidance from the SRA – October 2022

Andy Donovan, Managing Director and Founder of Compliance Office

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was “plainly incorrect as a matter of law” that calling letters ‘confidential’ or ‘without prejudice’ meant they could not be published in these circumstances.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.

Thought Leadership
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7 min read

5 things we learnt from the Law Society’s annual AML conference

Note: All data is from Financial Year 2021 / 2022

In September 2022, the Law Society held their annual Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime Conference which was attended by over 400 people in person and online. Here are our key takeaways:

1. Anti Money Laundering (AML) remains a major focus of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

AML is still at the forefront of the SRA and they are continuing with their four pronged approach to AML Supervision:

Information – The SRA provide lots of information and guidance around AML, a link to their resource page can be found here.
Proactive supervision – The SRA carry out supervision through desk based review, inspections and thematic reviews.
Investigations – As of 22nd September 2022, the SRA had 224 open AML related investigations.
Enforcement – SRA has taken 51 actions of enforcement on AML related matters, including 29 fines.

2. Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) are being reviewed by the SRA during their visits

While most SARs were written well, the SRA identified issues in relation to:

Glossary codes – these were missing in ⅔ of SARS
Client contact details – phone numbers / email addresses were missing in 28% of SARS
Defence firm was seeking – this was missing in 22% of SARS

SRA Thought Leadership
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3 min read

The SRA set to review all UK law firm websites

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.

Diversity and Inclusion ESG Thought Leadership
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10 min read

What are B Corps and how are they certified?

Symbol of corporate social responsibility

Gone are the days when businesses were only expected to generate profits and it was up to non-profits to solve society’s problems. Today, businesses are also expected to have a positive impact on society and the environment. One way companies are filling this new role is through the B Corp certification.

What is a B Corp?

A certified B corporation, or B Corp, is a designation for companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. These companies have demonstrated commitment to the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.

There are three key aspects of a B Corp:

The company has demonstrated high social and environmental performance through the B Impact Assessment, which covers the company’s impact on its workers, community, environment, and customers
The company has made a legal commitment to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Traditional corporations are legally obliged to serve the financial interests of shareholders or company owners. However, B Corps must also create value for all stakeholders, meaning those impacted by business decisions such as customers, employees, and community members
The company exhibits transparency by publishing its performance and impact assessment on the B Lab website

Today, many companies are choosing to demonstrate their social and environmental values with the B Corp certification. Globally, there are nearly 6,000 B Corps in 85 countries covering 158 industries.

ESG Thought Leadership
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59 sec read

New guide: The Legal Sector and ESG

Environmental, social and governance strategies for professional services

VinciWorks is pleased to publish a new guide, free to download, focusing on what professional services, and in particular the legal sector, should be considering when it comes to ESG.

In this guide, we look at how firms can successfully demonstrate their ESG commitments, what ESG means in particular for the legal industry, and different strategies and ideas for environmental, social and governance initiatives.

The guide also features an analysis on how to help clients consider ESG, how other firms are spearheading ESG, the so-called ‘Carbon Brainprint,’ also known as Scope 4 or ‘avoided’ emissions, and some key legal cases concerning ESG, and the risk of doing nothing.

Download guide

ESG Thought Leadership
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11 min read

What is ethnicity pay gap reporting?

The new frontier in D&I accountability

What is the ethnicity pay gap?

The ethnicity pay gap means the difference in the average pay between an employee from an ethnic minority background, compared to a ‘white’ employee.

The ethnicity pay gap concept is particularly used by British companies. In the UK, around 85% of the population is considered to be white ethnicity. This figure amalgamates the different categories of ethnic origin in the British Isles, such as White British, White Scottish, White Irish, and White Other.

Diversity and Inclusion Thought Leadership
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8 min read

Menopause in the workplace – How can you be a supportive employer?

October marks World Menopause Month. Menopause can cause a wide range of debilitating symptoms that affect work and relationships, and the low hormone levels resulting from menopause can also lead to long-term medical issues such as heart disease, diabetes and dementia. With women over 50 being one of the fastest-growing groups in the workforce, organisations are increasingly likely to have employees who are affected by menopause. Being able to have conversations around treatment, support and adjustments is crucial for ensuring their well-being, engagement and productivity.

The stigma around menopause in the workplace

The stigma around menopause and a general lack of understanding can make it difficult for people who are going through menopause to recognise their symptoms or speak about them openly. It can also be hard for managers and colleagues to effectively and sensitively approach the issue and offer support.

What is menopause?

Menopause is a natural biological process, but it can also occur as a result of certain medical treatments, such as chemotherapy or surgical operations to remove the womb or ovaries, which can lead to what is known as surgical menopause. The perimenopause, or menopause transition, begins several years before menopause and is the time when the ovaries gradually start making less of the hormone oestrogen. People going through perimenopause can experience a range of symptoms and menstrual irregularities. Some of these symptoms include hot flushes, night sweats, trouble sleeping, anxiety, poor concentration and irritability. Those experiencing menopause also have an increased risk of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and dementia.

Thought Leadership
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5 min read

Definition of SME expanded from under 250 to under 500 employees

Threshold could be raised again to 1,000 employees

The UK Government have announced that from today, 3 October 2022, it will treat firms with fewer than 500 employees as SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), as opposed to having fewer than 250 employees.

The prime minister announced the change in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday. She said:

The changed threshold will apply from tomorrow to all new regulations under development as well as those under current and future review, including retained EU laws. The government will also look at plans to consult in the future on potentially extending the threshold to businesses with 1,000 employees, once the impact on the current extension is known.
Prime Minister Liz Truss, 1 October 2022

These changes affect pay gap reporting, annual reports, rights to request time off for training, sick pay, as well as GDPR.

MDR: Canada introducing new legislation enhancing mandatory disclosure requirements

Canada is updating its mandatory disclosure legislation to be more in line with the OECD’s initiative to combat tax evasion, known as BEPS Action 12, which shows that the lack of timely, comprehensive and relevant information on aggressive tax planning strategies is one of the main challenges faced by tax authorities worldwide. The changes are set to go into force in 2023.

What is the background of Canada’s MDR?

In the 2021 Canadian Budget, it was announced that Canada would be amending the Income Tax Act to require certain transactions to be reported to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). These new Mandatory Disclosure Rules are set to be implemented in 2023.

In February 2022 the Canadian Department of Finance released draft legislation that included a description of mandatory disclosure measures which will ultimately help the CRA to become aware of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance much earlier on in a transaction.

UK MDR unlikely before the end of the year

VinciWorks understands that the UK is unlikely to introduce its own version of the Mandatory Disclosure Rules (UK MDR) before 2023.

As the government has changed and the Treasury has fully changed its Ministers, including the Financial Secretary to the Treasury who is responsible for tax policies, the official position is that the government is still reviewing the consultation responses. It is unlikely that we can expect any serious developments in relation to UK MDR in the near future.

VinciWorks is in regular discussion with HMRC and will be providing updates when we have more information.

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