Solicitors’ codes and rules

Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the body responsible for regulating the mote than 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales and to protect the public by ensuring that those solicitors meet the standards of ability, professionalism, conduct and care that is required of them.

Role of the SRA

The role of the SRA is, put at its simplest, to regulate solicitors and their practices in the interests of clients and the public in general. The SRA was set up as a a separate Regulator (acting on behalf of the Law Society) in January 2007, following a review of the regulatory activities of the Law Society under the auspices of Sir David Clementi.

Regulatory Powers

The main regulatory power of the SRA is that of drafting, promoting, monitoring, and enforcing the various regulations which affect solicitors, including drafting and amending the rules, monitoring solicitors for compliance with these rules, investigating firms and, where appropriate, taking disciplinary proceedings against the firms in question.

Risk based regulation

The SRA takes what it calls a risk-based approach to regulation, that is to say it takes an approach where the use of regulatory powers and the extent to which those powers are used is proportionate to the risk posed by the misconduct in question.

Disciplinary Processes

The SRA states that in addition to a risk based system for assessing the steps to be taken in response to a regulatory breach that it also follows a propertionate response in terms of an actual outcome from the conduct alleged. The term which it has used on many occasions is a light-touch regulator, although for many who fund themselves on the wrong end of a conduct outcome, this may seem something of a moot point.

Professional Ethics Guidance Team

The Professional Ethics Guidance Team is a resource provided by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) as a telephone helpline for solicitors who require assistance with issues which relate to the Solicitors Code of Conduct, Solicitors Accounts Rules and all of the other rules and regulations to which solicitors are subject.