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The Solicitors Regulation Authority needs to establish a new expert panel that would be called in to help avoid formal intervention into failing law firms – dubbed ‘intervention lite’ – a specialist solicitor has claimed.

There has been a 25% fall in the number of law firms closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the past year, new figures have revealed. But despite the number of solicitors before the tribunal also falling, there was a 55% increase in the number of strike-offs.

Let’s assume you already know you have to report material compliance failures to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) as soon as reasonably practicable. That begs the BIG question: what does a material compliance failure really look like. In the brave new world of outcomes-focused regulation, there’s no definition of material compliance failure and the SRA isn’t forthcoming with any real guidance or examples. Instead, you’re expected to work it out for yourself, taking into account all relevant factors.

The Solicitors Regulatory Authority should be able to process would-be alternative business structures wanting to bid for the new criminal legal aid ‘super-contracts’ in as little as three months, it has told MPs. The Bar Standards Board was more cautious about its regulation, however.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s reluctance to give detailed guidance to law firms on cloud computing could be because it is “waiting for something to go wrong” before it acts, a report has suggested.