Tag Results
Need to get COLP and COFA’s consent to take on roles will be "powerful tool"
Monday, 16 January 2012The requirement for compliance officers in law firms to consent to their appointment will be a “powerful tool” to ensure they are listened to, it was predicted last week. Firms were also told that they are likely to need a “compliance plan” as evidence of their approach to outcomes-focused regulation.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Latest news, Solicitors
SRA warns against "unthinking compliance" with indicative behaviours
Monday, 12 December 2011“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.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Code of Conduct, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Client care, News, Solicitors
Addleshaws partner opens novel legal regulation boutique
Wednesday, 2 November 2011Rachel Khiara, formerly a partner at national firm Addleshaw Goddard, has launched her own niche boutique specialising in advising law firms, alternative business structures and other advisers on the new regulatory regime in the legal sector.
Tags: compliance, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation
Posted in News, Regulation
OFR goes live with SRA reassurance that compliance officers are “not sacrifical lambs”
Thursday, 6 October 2011The 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.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
Mayson: LSA to encourage “transfer market” for non-lawyer chief executives
Friday, 23 September 2011A “transfer market” of law firm chief executives should emerge in the post-Legal Services Act world, Professor Stephen Mayson has predicted, especially if lenders and investors insist on appointing their own choice of management team as a condition of their financial support.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, head of finance and administration, head of legal practice, HoFA
Posted in Alternative business structures, News
Getting to grips with COLPs and COFAs
Wednesday, 24 August 2011Frank 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.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Features, News, Solicitors
Firms have “heads in the sand” over compliance officers
Thursday, 4 August 2011Law firms are not doing enough to train staff in risk and compliance matters, a leading expert on partnerships has warned – adding that practices must “get their houses in order by October 2011” to be ready for the new regulatory requirements.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
The sorry tale of David McGrath – a warning to COLPs and COFAs?
Thursday, 26 May 2011Alarm 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.
Tags: COFA, COLP, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
Clients pushing big law firms to improve risk management, says survey
Thursday, 17 March 2011Clients are expressing much more concern about the way the largest UK law firms are managing risk than before – and than the firms’ own lawyers, a survey has found. While just 21% of lawyers perceived risk management to be a “key priority”, 47% of clients thought it was.
Tags: compliance, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice
Posted in Indemnity insurance, News, Solicitors
Law Society to aid compliance officers facing personal exposure under SRA’s new regime
Friday, 3 December 2010The Law Society is considering a scheme to shore up the position of compliance officers who could find themselves personally exposed under the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) proposed handbook. Chief executive Des Hudson also raised concerns over the SRA’s progress towards outcomes-focused regulation.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, compliance officer for finance and administration, compliance officer for legal practice, Law Society, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, News, Solicitors