Solicitors who specialise
- Looking for help
- Specialisms
- Accredited solicitors
- Accreditation schemes
- Notaries public
- Identifying a specialist
- Search for an accredited solicitor
Looking for help
If you’re looking for a solicitor, it’s probable that you’re acutely aware of the nature of the matter with which you require help; it could be a business matter, an employment law problem or a personal injury claim.
You’re also likely to be looking for a solicitor who has special experience and expertise in dealing with problems or issues such as the one you’re facing.
Specialisms
Identifying a specialist legal adviser is straightforward using Find a solicitor. You can search for firms of solicitors based on the "specialisms" (or areas of law) of the individuals who work in them.
Solicitors each year inform the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) of the areas of law in which they specialise, selecting a maximum of six such areas from a list of more than 50. Please bear in mind that solicitors are not required to demonstrate to the SRA their expertise or their experience in the areas of law they designate as specialisms.
Accredited solicitors
A guaranteed way of identifying a specialist legal adviser is to search for members of one of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)'s range of accreditation schemes using Find a solicitor. All accreditation scheme members have demonstrated their special competence in a particular area of law - eg family law, planning law or legal aspects of insolvency and bankruptcy - to the satisfaction of the SRA.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority operates more than a dozen accreditation schemes, all of which are designed to put you in contact with the specialist help you require.
All accreditation scheme members have successfully completed a range of stringent tests, examinations, interviews and role-play assessments; their fitness and suitability to be scheme members has been investigated and confirmed.
Accreditation schemes
- Children Panel Accreditation Scheme
- Civil and Commercial Mediation Accreditation Scheme
- Clinical Negligence Accreditation Scheme
- Family Law Accreditation Scheme
- Family Law Accreditation Scheme– Advanced
- Family Mediation Accreditation Scheme
- Higher Courts Rights of Audience
- Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme
- Insolvency Practitioners
- Mental Health Review Tribunal Accreditation Scheme
- Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme
- Planning Accreditation Scheme
To search for a scheme member near you, use Find a solicitor.
Learn how to search for an accredited solicitor.
Notaries public
Notaries public undertake work for private individuals, and for commercial firms engaged in international trade. Their services typically include
- preparing and witnessing powers of attorney for use overseas
- dealing with purchase or sale of land and property abroad
- providing documents to deal with the administration of the estate of people who are abroad, or owning property abroad
- authenticating personal documents and information for immigration or emigration purposes, or to apply to marry or to work abroad
- authenticating company and business documents and transactions
Most notaries are solicitors.
To find a notary near you, visit the website of the Notaries Society and select Find a notary.
Identifying a specialist
All solicitors have a generalist qualification to practice law; they are not required to work only in one or two particular areas of law. Accordingly, firms of solicitors are able to offer legal services covering a wide range of matters. However, increasingly, individual solicitors within firms specialise in only one or two areas of law.
If the firm of solicitors you normally use proves unable to assist you with a particular matter, it will refer you to a firm that is able to help you. Alternatively, the firm you normally use may seek advice on your behalf from a solicitor or barrister who has more-specialised legal knowledge.
Every year, all solicitors have the opportunity to tell the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) about up to six areas of law in which they specialise. The information they provide is entered into our Find a solicitor database. Use Find a solicitor to search for firms that include solicitors who have reported to the SRA that they specialise in particular areas of law.
To locate a solicitor with proven expertise in a particular area of law (eg family law, planning law or the legal aspects of insolvency and bankruptcy), use Find a solicitor to search for members of the SRA's accreditation schemes. All accreditation scheme members have demonstrated their specialist expertise by successfully completing a range of tests, examinations, interviews and role-play assessments
Look for this sign – 
– next
to the name of firms listed in Find
a solicitor search results; it means that at least one solicitor
in the firm belongs to a Solicitors Regulation Authority accreditation
scheme.
- Left click on the firm’s name to learn which scheme their solicitor(s) belong(s) to.
- Then, left click on the scheme name to view the name of the solicitor(s).
Search for an accredited solicitor |
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