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Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales.

It is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of more than 125,000 solicitors and other authorised individuals at more than 11,000 firms, as well as those working in-house at private and public sector organisations.

The SRA, based in Birmingham and with an office in London, is led operationally by a Chief Executive and Senior Management Team, with a Board and Board Sub-Committees providing strategic direction.

The SRA was formed in January 2007 by the Legal Services Act to act as the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. In a report by Sir David Clementi of all legal services in England and Wales, he recommended that professional bodies holding both regulatory and representative responsibilities should separate those roles.

The Law Society remains the representative body for solicitors.

Function
The SRA regulates solicitors, other authorised professionals and the firms they work in throughout England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate legal jurisdictions and have their own regulatory regimes.

A solicitor is someone who carries out specific legal activities, having undergone specialist studies and training. These specific services are called reserved legal activities. In England and Wales, the current reserved legal activities are:

•	Administration of oaths •	Advocacy •	Conveyancing •	Litigation •	Notary •	Probate

There are other regulators within England and Wales, who regulate other providers of legal services. The Bar Standards Board regulates barristers, for example, while the other regulators are:

•	CILEx (http://www.ilex.org.uk/ips/ips_home/about_ips.aspx) •	Notaries (http://www.facultyoffice.org.uk/) •	CLC (http://www.clc-uk.org/) •	Intellectual Property Regulation Board (http://www.ipreg.org.uk/) •	Costs Lawyer Standards Board (http://www.clsb.info/)

All regulators report to the overarching Legal Services Board (http://www.legalservicesboard.org.uk/). Regulatory work is designed to ensure all work in legal services achieves the seven regulatory outcomes.

These are (http://www.legalservicesboard.org.uk/about_us/index.htm):


 * protecting and promoting the public interest
 * supporting the constitutional principle of the rule of law
 * improving access to justice
 * protecting and promoting the interests of consumers
 * promoting competition in the provision of services in the legal sector
 * encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession
 * increasing public understanding of citizens legal rights and duties
 * promoting and maintaining adherence to the professional principles of independence and integrity; proper standards of work; observing the best interests of the client and the duty to the court; and maintaining client confidentiality

The SRA carries out its function by:

Regulating in the public interest
 * Creating and maintaining the Solicitors Handbook including the Code of Conduct (http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/welcome.page), which contains the ethical principles that guide solicitors in their work
 * Authorising those that want to work in the profession, including the annual renewal of Practising Certificates that represent a solicitor’s licence to practise
 * Authorising the firms within which individuals carry out reserved legal activities
 * Supervising firms and individuals to ensure they adhere to professional standards
 * Taking enforcement action against those that have breached the code of conduct, to create an effective deterrent and discourage further wrong-doing in the profession. A range of sanctions are available to the SRA, including prosecuting more severe cases at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal
 * Monitoring the quality of training both for those entering the profession and to further increase the standard of those practising within it

The SRA regulates firms and individuals in the public interest. This means setting the minimum professional standards that solicitors should adhere to so their clients - as consumers - get the service they expect. When these standards are not met, professional sanctions are taken to act as a deterrent.

What regulating in the public interest does not mean, however, is acting as means of recourse for individuals that are unhappy with the actions of their solicitor or firm. While the SRA will deal with complaints brought to it by dissatisfied clients as necessary, it does not offer a compensation scheme. This can be achieved through the Legal Ombudsman (http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_Ombudsman

Activity
In 2012, the SRA's Supervision function handled a total of 6,289 issues, while the Forensic Investigations Unit began work on 530 new cases.

The number of interventions, which involves the SRA closing down a firm because it poses risks to clients, was 37. The number of referrals to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was 289, which resulted in 77 strike-offs, 94 fines and 56 suspensions, among other sanctions.

The Solicitors Compensation Fund accepted 1,321 claims and paid out £18.54 million to those which were successful.

Further information on the SRA's enforcement activity can be found on its Reports and Research pages (http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/how-we-work/reports.page)

In 2011, the SRA moved from a rules-based tick-box approach to regulation and introduced an outcomes-focused regime (http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/freedom-in-practice/outcomes-focused-regulation.page). This involved creating a whole new Handbook to create a regulatory framework in which law firms could deliver the best outcomes for their clients using a business model adapted specifically for their situation. http://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/ofr-goes-live-with-sra-reassurance-that-compliance-officers-are-not-sacrifical-lambs

Research conducted at the end of 2012 showed that while the number of firms comfortable with the concept of outcomes-focused regulation had increased, the SRA still had work to do to demonstrate the flexibilities offered by the new way of working. (http://www.sra.org.uk/impactofr)

The Legal Services Act also allowed for law firms to adopt management models that moved away from the traditional all-partner model. Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) were introduced on 6 October, 2011, and the SRA began accepting applications for licences on 3 January 2012. The first licences were awarded on 28 March 2012. http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/firm-based-authorisation/abs/abs-search.page http://www.legalweek.com/legal-week/news/2164198/sra-confirms-debut-trio-licensed-alternative-business-structures

The SRA, in conjunction with the BSB and IPS, has delivered the Legal Education Training Review (LETR), the most comprehensive study on training for legal services in a generation. Each of the regulators will be producing their own response to the findings of the review. (http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/how-we-work/legal-education-training-review-letr.page)

As part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, the Government introduced a ban on the payment of referral fees in personal injury cases. Solicitors could no longer pay firms that passed them details of those who had suffered injuries as the Government felt this played a significant part in creating and maintaining the alleged compensation culture (http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/news/hot-picks/referral-fees/onus-firms-show-no-referral-fee-being-paid). The SRA was tasked with drawing up the rules to outlaw the payments and police the profession http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/referral-fees-ban.page) in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice and Financial Conduct Authority (www.fca.org.uk).

The difficult economic climate brought about by the 2008 recession affected the legal sector in the same way that it affected all others. While some firms found new ways of working or cut their cloth accordingly, others failed to adapt to tighter financial constraints. This was brought into focus early in 2013 with a number of high-profile failures at large practices http://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/sra-paints-grim-picture-financial-instability-among-law-firms. The SRA has started a programme of work to discover how deeply the financial difficulties lie, and help firms in trouble. (http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/part3/rule7/resources.page)

High-profile investigations (News International, Hillsborough) already there.