Regulation
Last updated: 20 February 2012
Practice notes
Legal Compliance Bulletin
The Bulletin provides up-to-date, practical information on every aspect of legal compliance and regulation
Risk and Compliance Service
The Law Society's Risk and Compliance Service can help you get to grips with the new system.
Practice advice
The Practice Advice Service, a dedicated support line staffed by solicitors, can assist with solicitors' regulation queires. Advice is free and confidential.
From the bookshop
Visit the Law Society bookshop for the latest books on professional conduct.
- SRA Handbook
- Outcomes-Focused Regulation
- Solicitors' Accounts Manual, 12th edition
- Solicitors and the Accounts Rules, 3rd edition
The regulatory landscape for solicitors is changing rapidly with the implementation of the Legal Services Act 2007 and the Solicitor Regulation Authority's (SRA) move to outcomes-focused regulation (OFR).
The Law Society is providing advice and support for members to help them through these changes.
- Outcomes-focused regulation
- Professional indemnity insurance
- Education and training
- Complaints handling
- The investigation process
- Frequently asked questions about ABS
- Frequently asked questions about compliance officers
Read about our regulation campaign work
Regulatory performance survey findings - 2011
The Law Society has published the results of a survey on firms' views on regulatory performance.
Read the report
ABS practice note
From 6 October 2011, part 5 of the Legal Services Act 2007 is expected to come into force allowing the licensing of ABS. The changes will allow non-lawyers to own and invest in law firms. The present limit on the number of non-lawyer managers within a law firm will also be removed. The SRA expect to be able to license ABS in early 2012.
The Law Society has issued a practice note providing details on the changes relating to ABS.
Outcomes-focused regulation
The SRA introduced outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) from October 2011.
OFR focuses on high level outcomes, rather than tick-box compliance and the SRA has produced a new Handbook, including a new Code of Conduct.
Read more about OFR and the Law Society practice notes on this area.
Complaint management and publication
Sometimes clients will make a complaint if they feel unhappy with the service they have received from a solicitor. How a solicitor responds to those complaints is an important demonstration of their professionalism as a solicitor and ability to provide quality customer service.
The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) consulted on what information it should publish, including whether it should publish solicitors' complaints records. We do not believe that publication of solicitors' complaints records is in the public's or profession's interest. We believe that a better way to achieve an improvement in client services is to help to build the capacity of solicitors to respond to complaints, and to provide public information on practices who handle complaints well.
Read the Law Society's full consultation response
Find out more about the LeO's scheme
Practice support
Current issues
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Further information
- Further information can be found on the SRA website.