Gary Yantin, Director of Best Practice, VinciWorks.
In this short article aimed at Compliance officers, L&D managers and those responsible for ensuring good regulations at their law firm, VinciWorks’ Director of Best Practice Gary Yantin shares his advice about who to train, how and when.
On 25 November, the SRA will introduce their new Standards and Regulations; a set of codes for law firms and solicitors. Along with two new codes, the SRA have redefined their principles and updated their accounts rules.
Over the last few weeks, I have been asked to advise firms about what training they should roll out to staff.
At VinciWorks, we have created a suite of five SRA Standards and Regulations courses to cover all aspects of the new Standards and Regulations. A full course, SRA Standards and Regulations: Fundamentals, covers the new code in full detail and tests staff on their understanding, using scenario based training. A shorter course, “SRA Standards and Regulations: What’s Changed?” explains the difference between the SRA Handbook that many solicitors are familiar with and the new rules. We also drafted three specific courses; one for accounts staff, one for compliance officers and managers and one to update all staff on how to handle client engagement.
Many firms are using the opportunity of the new regulations, nicknamed STaRS, to conduct some face-to-face training with their teams and make sure that they are up to date with the firm’s core values and attitude to risk. They are using the regulations as a powerful pretext to raise awareness. To those firms, I recommend our short SRA Standards and Regulations: What’s Changed? course to back up the learning and reinforce the messages delivered.
For firms without the time, resources or desire to prepare and deliver classroom sessions on the new rules, I recommend rolling out our SRA Standards and Regulations: Fundamentals course to all staff. The SRA guidance that all staff working in a law firm should be aware of the regulatory principles is clear.
All staff dealing with client money should also complete our SRA Advanced: Accounts rules course.
Ideally, learners should be enrolled in this training ahead of the new rules being in force on 25 November.
I always recommend that you review the course before you roll it out to others and if you want to see a demo, existing VinciWorks clients can review the courses on their Learning Management System. If you are not a client, click here to learn more about our SRA training suite and demo the courses for free.
As Director of Best Practice at VinciWorks, Gary Yantin works with law firms of all sizes to provide the best compliance learning experience for their staff. He was previously an in-house lawyer and a solicitor in private practice. Gary has hosted many webinars and workshops for VinciWorks on a wide range of risk and compliance topics including GDPR and the SRA’s new approach to ongoing learning.
