Tag Results
SRA reveals scale of COLP/COFA failures as 1,200 nominees don't declare suitability issues
Wednesday, 23 January 2013The scale of non-compliance with the SRA over COLPs and COFAs became clear yesterday, with 152 firms now facing enforcement action for failing to complete their nominations, and the revelation that 1,200 nominees did not declare “potentially relevant issues” – including undisclosed criminal convictions, serious disciplinary sanctions and undeclared bankruptcy.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
Townsend: we’re doing well but will get better
Friday, 18 January 2013Not all alternative business structure applicants have understood what is required of them, which in part explains delays in approving some licences, the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said in a robust defence of the regulator’s performance that also dealt with compliance officer approvals.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Latest news, Solicitors
The SRA’s trust exercise
Wednesday, 16 January 2013The Solicitors Regulation Authority has been celebrating the first year of its ABS licensing regime. It is not just a numbers game, but with 74 licences granted in that time and 300-odd still inching their way through the application process, it perhaps hasn’t necessarily been quite as glorious a first year as the SRA is making out – another way of looking at it is that there is a large backlog – but it has certainly been interesting given the range of approvals.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, practising certificate, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
Does the SRA practise what it preaches over OFR?
Thursday, 10 January 2013An outcomes-focused, risk-based approach to regulating the activities of most lawyers who deliver legal services in a post-Legal Services Act landscape is a fact of life. Yet you still don’t have to go far to find solicitors who either fail to grasp the concept or hanker after the old, detailed rules-based system. The degree of non-acceptance is profound, more than a year after outcomes-focused regulation came in – in October 2011. So persistent is it that the SRA may be relying on the insertion of compliance officers for legal practice and financial administration (COLPs and COFAs) into the fabric of every firm to help change attitudes.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
The New Year fitness regime has started
Friday, 4 January 2013Christmas has been and gone and the festivities of New Year are over. Despite the hangover, is the real headache yet to come? Possibly, if you’re starting 2013 as your firm’s compliance office for legal practice and/or for finance and administration (COLP/COFA). here might well be a surge of activity and enthusiasm at the start but as time goes on and other priorities come to the fore, the risk of neglecting the fitness regime increases. This can’t be allowed to happen. So what should COLPs and COFAs be looking to do in the first month of their new role?
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice
Posted in Blog
90% of COLPs and COFAs in place, but 1,000 firms miss 1 January deadline
Wednesday, 2 January 2013Nearly 90% of firms had their compliance officers in place for the start of the new regime yesterday, with the rest either yet to have their nominations approved or, in the case of 194 firms, failed to complete the process at all.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA Handbook
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
Hundreds of delinquent firms move closer to COLP/COFA action
Thursday, 20 December 2012Around 250 law firms have yet to even start the process of nominating their compliance officers and face having their authorisation removed in the New Year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority announced yesterday.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
Traditional firms “more innovative than ABSs”, says SRA, as it promises COLP/COFA reassurance
Monday, 17 December 2012Innovations in legal practice are coming more from traditional law firms than from ABSs, the SRA said last week. Meanwhile, it will this week clarify the position of firms that have submitted COLP and COFA nominations but have not yet received approvals.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, outsourcing, personal injury, practising certificate, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Latest news, Solicitors
SRA: “too many” COLP and COFA nominees failing to disclose suitability issues
Thursday, 6 December 2012The Solicitors Regulation Authority has received “too many” compliance officer nominations where the individuals concerned have failed to disclose serious disciplinary issues that make them unsuitable for the role, as it warns that hundreds of firms will start 2013 without officers in place.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
SRA begins action against 400 COLP/COFA defaulters as first approvals are issued
Monday, 3 December 2012The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to begin the process of pursuing the 400 law firms which have yet to nominate their compliance officers after the first tranche of approvals was issued.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors