Compl-i - March 2011
Welcome to our Compl-i newsletter, a
bi-monthly review of regulatory and compliance issues affecting
solicitors.
With the final draft of the proposed new SRA
Handbook about to be released, we are pleased to be able to offer
bespoke training courses both for firm’s management teams and/or
your staff on what is in store. All firms are obliged to train
their staff on the new Handbook and our training will provide you
with all the information you need to be equipped for the new
regime. And all for just £750 plus VAT and disbursements! You can
see a full list of our Training Programme in the Training and
Events section.
In this newsletter we will review the
challenges ahead for firms and also the difficult issue of the
Successor Practice Rules. With mergers becoming more common, firms
cannot afford to ignore the consequences of these rules and we hope
you will find this a useful summary of the current position. We
also provide a breakdown of all the latest ‘hot topics’, recent
case law, as well as providing links to recent practice notes
released by the Law Society and open consultations.
We would also greatly appreciate your input
into our questionnaire which you can complete by clicking
here. We are very interested to learn more about the
difficulties you may be experiencing with regard to regulation,
complaints and insurance issues and your feedback will help us to
target in future newsletters those issues which firms are finding
most difficult.
The Challenges Ahead
In this article,
Michelle Garlick reviews the many changes and regulatory challenges
facing law firms this year.
Successor Practice – Pitfalls and Premiums
Susan Ford considers
the effects of the Successor Practice Rules, in light of many law
firms considering mergers and acquisitions in these economic
times.
‘Hot Topics’
In this section we
provide updates on Alternative Business Structures, the law
society’s conveyancing quality scheme, referral fees, LeO and the
regulation of will writers.
Case Summaries
In this section we look
at recent case law in relation to the extent of a solicitor’s
obligation to check capacity of a client and also the effects of
retainer letters and the obligations on firms when seeking to
terminate the retainer.
Practice Notes
We include in this
section practice notes recently published by the Law
Society.
Consultations
This section provides
information on the SRA’s recently open consultation.
Training and Events
In this section we
provide details of our Training Programme and forthcoming
presentations by Michelle Garlick.