Who is the service for?
Recent changes to the legal regulatory landscape mean that increasingly senior-level partners, law firm managers and risk professionals will be under intense scrutiny. They will be expected to take a lead role in creating an effective risk-aware culture and will also have greater responsibility for embedding core risk management systems, policies, and procedures within their firms. Key individuals who should consider joining the service include:
- Compliance officers for legal practice (COLPs)
- Compliance officers for finance and administration (COFAs)
- Risk partners and managers
- Compliance partners and managers
- Risk and compliance managers
- Client care partners and managers
- Complaints handling partners and managers
- Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs)
- Managing partners
- Practice heads
- Heads of marketing and business development
- Heads of operations
- Heads of information security
- In-house legal counsel, particularly senior or heads of legal departments
Membership is open to both firms and individuals.
Why should I join?
Managing risk and regulatory compliance is already a critical issue for all legal practices, but the Legal Services Act 2007 has created a radically new and challenging landscape. Firms are facing a range of new pressures with even greater impetus to develop a more robust and coordinated approach to legal and statutory compliance, including the following:
- The establishment of the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) – this has significantly changed the way firms need to respond to complaints and may expose firms to the risk of fines and financial penalties if appropriate adjustments are not made.
- The new oversight regulator, the Legal Services Board (LSB), putting client care and complaints avoidance at the top of its agenda – this aims to ensure that firms embed cultures, systems and quality assurance to give consumers confidence in legal services.
- The introduction of outcomes-focused regulation and the new SRA Code of Conduct in October 2011 – this will give your firm greater freedom to deliver business in a way that suits your needs, however, you will need to demonstrate that you have effective risk-management systems and controls in place if you want to take advantage of more flexible forms of regulation.
- The ever growing need to assure professional indemnity insurers of effective firm wide compliance – this means that the cheapest insurance premiums are increasingly only guaranteed to those firms that can demonstrate that have taken active and meaningful steps to build and maintain effective risk and compliance strategies across their business.
No firm can afford not to comply with the new rules and governance requirements, nor can you discount the potentially significant damage that could be done to your firm and your clients if you fail to mitigate risk.
How will the service support me?
The Risk and Compliance Service will provide you with information and practical guidance about a wide range of risk and compliance concerns and provide you with an action plan that best suits the needs of your firm.
The core products and services offered by the Risk and Compliance Service will help you to:
- Develop and demonstrate that your firm has in place effective risk management and compliance systems.
- Demonstrate evidence of the correct procedures and culture for client care and complaints management.
- Develop a risk matrix, and put in place risk management policies and procedures so that you can satisfy insurers, banks and clients that you are capable of delivering high quality legal services.
- Drive down the cost of your professional indemnity insurance premium.
- Achieve or maintain Lexcel, the Law Society's practice management standard
As a member, your firm will have access to a wide range of benefits to achieve these outcomes.