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Attendees at the first of a series of roadshows have been learning of the potential perils of the major regulatory changes that are on the way for solicitors, and which will radically affect the way they run their businesses.

“Unthinking reliance” on the indicative behaviours in the Code of Conduct is not a risk-free approach to compliance, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. Larger firms should also not appoint their senior or managing partners to the role of compliance office for legal practice.

The new compliance officers required under outcomes-focused regulation – which begins today – “will not be sacrificial lambs for the sins of the organisations they work in”, the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has stressed.

Frank Maher, a partner at Liverpool law firm Legal Risk LLP, outlines the new requirements on law firms to appoint compliance officers and the difficult issues they raise for practices in choosing who to appoint and the extent of the role.

Alarm bells are ringing in the financial services sector after a finding by the Financial Services Authority against an individual with compliance oversight responsibilities in a brokerage firm. If the Solicitors Regulation Authority, under its new enforcement powers, takes a similar approach, compliance officers for legal practice (COLPs) and for finance and administration (COFAs) had better beware.