Tag Results
What’s in a word?
Thursday, 19 April 2012Governance seems to be the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new favourite word. It crops up in the most fashionable parts of the SRA Handbook – in her latest blog on COLPs and COFAs, Allison Wooddisse, head of Legal Futures Associate LexisPSL Practice Compliance, tries to work out what the SRA means when it talks about law firms’ governance.
Tags: authorisation rules, COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Code of Conduct, Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA Handbook
Posted in Blog
COLP role risks prompting culture of silence at firms, warns top adviser
Friday, 13 April 2012Law firms should not appoint the lawyer who handles their indemnity insurance as the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) or risk discouraging lawyers from owning up to their mistakes, a leading City solicitor has advised.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
Firms “need to develop” whistleblowing and client account interest policies
Thursday, 12 April 2012Law firms need to establish policies on whistleblowing and the interest they pay to clients, according to a leading regulatory solicitor. Other key issues troubling firms include preparing a business plan and compliance with provisions on outsourcing.
Tags: client account interest, COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, outsourcing, Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA Handbook
Posted in Accounts rules, Latest news, Solicitors
Don’t recruit partners without running them past us first, SRA warns firms
Monday, 2 April 2012Law firms recruiting partners must now seek the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s approval prior to appointment, it has confirmed. However, it is still unable to confirm when the process will begin for firms to nominate their COLP and COFA.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Legal Services Act, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
News round-up: financial stresses hit lawyers, slander case struck out, and much more
Thursday, 22 March 2012Our latest round-up of news in brief has a breakdown of calls in 2011 to legal support charity LawCare, better news on PII, a defamation battle between two employment law consultancies, developments over conveyancing panels, and SIFA launching a consultancy.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, conveyancing, financial services, Law Society, professional indemnity insurance
Posted in Latest news, News In Brief
COLP and COFA nomination process to begin “within six weeks”, says SRA
Thursday, 15 March 2012The form that allows law firms to nominate their compliance officers for legal practice and for finance and administration should go live in the next six weeks, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said yesterday, while also revealing some of the information it will require about them.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Accounts Rules, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Accounts rules, Latest news, Solicitors
A compliance plan: the Emperor's new clothes?
Monday, 12 March 2012Is a compliance plan a COLP’s need-to-have or simply a nice-to-have and, more to the point, what on earth is a compliance plan? Compliance plans are the Emperor’s New Clothes of the SRA regulatory regime. Everyone’s talking about them, but no-one wants to admit they can’t see them and they don’t know what they are. There’s a good reason for this – compliance plan requirements are virtually invisible in the SRA Handbook. Allison Wooddisse explains.
Tags: code of conduct, COFA, COLP, compliance, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA Handbook
Posted in Blog
SRA set to delay COLP and COFA deadline
Monday, 27 February 2012The 31 March deadline for law firms to nominate their new compliance officers is to be pushed back as a result of the continuing practising certificate renewal problems at the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, internal governance rules, Law Society, Legal Services Board, practising certificate, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
Townsend: SRA surprised by high level of ABS applications
Tuesday, 7 February 2012The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far received more alternative business structure applications than it expected, chief executive Antony Townsend admitted yesterday. He also suggested that there will in time be growing momentum towards consolidating the eight current legal regulators into one.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Latest news, Solicitors
Roadshow highlights potential perils of new COLP/COFA roles
Tuesday, 24 January 2012Attendees 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.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation
Posted in associate news, Uncategorized