About Practice Compliance
Every law firm has a legal duty to comply with the SRA Handbook and a raft of other legislation and regulations. Get it wrong and you personally face investigation, disciplinary action, fines and prosecution (not to mention the damage to your reputation).
GDPR compliance
Practical guidance tools, registers, training aids and other templates to help you comply with data protection law and manage privacy risks
SRA Handbook
Every law firm has a legal duty to comply with the SRA Handbook and a raft of other legislation and regulations. Get it wrong and you personally face investigation, disciplinary action, fines and prosecution.
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Our Practice Compliance Experts
Melanie O'Brien
David Gilmore
Sarah Mumford
Iain Miller
Susanna Heley
Latest Practice Compliance News
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has convened its annual high-level meeting with the nine FATF-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs) in Strasbourg,...
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has welcomed the Data (Use and Access) Bill (DUA Bill) receiving Royal Assent on 19 June...
The Information Commissioner's Office has published several guidance documents and a working plan following the Data (Use and Access) Bill receiving...
The Data (Use and Access) Bill (DUA) received Royal Assent and became an Act of Parliament on Thursday 19 June 2025. This followed its parliamentary...
This week's edition of Practice Compliance weekly highlights includes: the latest Practice Compliance forecast, notable financial sanctions...
Latest Practice Compliance Practice Notes
Legal professional privilege in civil proceedingsThis Practice Note considers legal professional privilege (LPP), which is made up of legal advice...
How to handle data subject requestsThis Practice Note is intended for private sector commercial organisations in the UK. It provides practical...
What’s new and what’s changed in 2022—Practice Compliance [Archived]ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. For more...
What’s new and what’s changed in 2020—Practice Compliance [Archived]ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. For more...
What’s new and what’s changed in 2019—Practice Compliance [Archived]ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. For more...
Latest Practice Compliance Precedents
Data subject requests—periodic review1General informationDate of review[Insert date]Person(s) conducting review[Insert name(s)] 2Review of action...
Message to staff about their role in the data subject requests processAs part of the work we do, we process personal data about our [insert details,...
Small business GDPR compliance—self-audit1Lawfulness, fairness and transparencyICO expectation and current statusMore informationLexisNexis® tools and...
Response to data subject request—right of access—seeking clarification[Name of individual making request][Address of individual making request][Date...
Response to data subject request—all rights—charging a fee or extension of time to respond[Name of individual making request][Address of individual...
Latest Practice Compliance Q&As
Featured Practice Compliance content
What is a solicitor's undertaking?
What is a solicitor's undertaking?An undertaking is a commitment by a solicitor to do something. It can be enforced against the solicitor by the...
In what circumstances might a solicitor be able to contact another lawyer's client directly?
SRA Codes of Conduct for individuals and firms
SRA Code of Conduct for individuals and firmsThis Practice Note provides guidance on the SRA Codes of Conduct, contained in the SRA Standards and...
Acting for yourself, friends and family
Acting for yourself, friends and familyThis Practice Note covers considerations where a law firm wishes to act for one of its own partners or...
Undertakings and the court
Undertakings and the courtThis Practice Note explains:•what powers the court has to enforce undertakings•when it is likely to exercise those...
Duties of confidentiality and disclosure
Duties of confidentiality and disclosure 2019The protection of confidential information is a fundamental feature of the solicitor-client relationship...
What is a legal entity identifier (LEI) and does my law firm need one?
Working with foreign lawyers—the registered foreign lawyer (RFL) regime
Working with foreign lawyers—the Registered Foreign Lawyer (RFL) regimeThe Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) operates a registration regime for...
Solicitors Regulation Authority
Solicitors Regulation AuthorityThe Solicitors Regulation authority (SRA) is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. It...
When and how can I terminate my retainer?
Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) practice management standards—Precedents content map
Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) practice management standards—Precedents content mapThe Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) is a quality...
Client care letter—law firms
Client care letter—law firmsDear [Insert client’s name][Insert heading, eg matter description]Thank you for your instructions to act on your behalf in...
Conflicts of interest—law firms and solicitors
Conflicts of interest 2019Conflicts of interest can cause difficult and serious problems for solicitors and law firms, both from a compliance point of...
If an email is sent to you in error by an opposing party’s solicitor, what obligations does one have to notify the client of its contents? If there is no duty to disclose the contents to the client, is there a duty to let them know that the email has been received but deleted?
SRA Accounts Rules—law firms
SRA Accounts Rules 2019This Practice Note sets out the requirements of the SRA Accounts rules 2019 (the 2019 Rules), in force from 25 November 2019,...
Who owns the matter file—law firms?
Risk management—key risks—law firms
Risk management—key risks—law firmsEffective risk management is fundamental to the commercial success of law firms. To manage risk effectively you...
How to close a client matter—law firms
Closing a client matter—law firmsClosing a client matter properly is a basic client care, risk management and housekeeping requirement. There are also...
Associated legal terms
Communications data
“Communications data”, in relation to a postal operator or postal service, means— (a) postal data comprised in, included as part of, attached to or logically associated with a communication (whether by the sender or otherwise) for the purposes of a postal service by means of which it is being or may be transmitted, (b) information about the use made by any person of a postal service (but excluding any content of a communication (apart from information within paragraph (a)), or (c) information not within paragraph (a) or (b) that is (or is to be or is capable of being) held or obtained by or on behalf of a person providing a postal service, is about those to whom the service is provided by that person and relates to the service so provided.
Interception
A person intercepts a communication in the course of its transmission by means of a telecommunication system if, and only if— (a) the person does a relevant act in relation to the system, and (b) the effect of the relevant act is to make any content of the communication available, at a relevant time, to a person who is not the sender or intended recipient of the communication.
New qualifying trade
For the purposes of this Part a qualifying trade carried on by the issuing company or a qualifying 90% subsidiary of that company (“the relevant company”) is a “new qualifying trade” if (and only if)— (a) the trade does not begin to be carried on (whether by the relevant company or any other person) before the two year pre-investment period, and (b) at no time before the relevant company begins to carry on the trade was any other trade being carried on by the issuing company or by any company that was a 51% subsidiary of the issuing company at the time in question.
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