Tag Results
Number of individuals and firms in dock over COLP and COFA failures rises to 800
Tuesday, 16 April 2013The total number of firms and individuals in trouble with the Solicitors Regulation Authority over nominations for compliance officers has risen by a third in the past month to nearly 800, it has emerged.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
Hundreds of solicitors and firms in the dock for COLP and COFA failures
Tuesday, 12 March 2013More than 600 solicitors and law firms are facing action over their failures in nominating compliance officers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has revealed. It said the level of non-compliance was disappointing.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
300 law firms still don’t have compliance officers
Monday, 4 March 2013More than two months since law firms were meant to have their compliance officers in place, around 300 firms still do not have them, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed. This is a mix of firms that have not had their nominations approved and those that have still not nominated at all.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
SRA survey: OFR confusion for many firms – and their compliance officers
Tuesday, 19 February 2013Nearly half of solicitors’ firms are not clear what regulatory outcomes they are expected to deliver, a survey on outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) has found – despite more than four out five people questioned being those responsible for ensuring compliance.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
IRIS Legal announces new partnership agreement with Riliance Software
Monday, 28 January 2013IRIS Legal is delighted to announce the signing of its first partnership agreement of 2013 with COLP/COFA software provider Riliance Software Ltd. In the agreement, and in response to the increasingly complex regulatory needs of UK law firms, IRIS Legal has added Riliance’s market leading COLP/COFA online service to its existing product portfolio to provide a unique service offering to the UK legal market.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance, IRIS Legal, legal IT, legal software
Posted in associate news
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
Blog
The lonely role of a COFA: sharing the burden of risk management
Compliance officers for finance and administration in law firms can often find themselves walking a solitary path. But what if we could create a collaborative culture of shared accountability?
Mind the (justice) gap: Why are RTAs going up but claims still down?
The gap between the number of road traffic accident injuries and the number of motor injury claims continues to widen, according to the latest government data.
Five key issues to consider when adopting an AI-based legal tech
As generative AI starts to play a bigger role in our working lives, there are some key issues that your law firm needs to consider when adopting an AI-based legal tech.
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