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.
Topics We Cover
Our Practice Compliance Experts
Melanie O'Brien
David Gilmore
Sarah Mumford
Iain Miller
Susanna Heley
Latest Practice Compliance News
Law360, London: On 1 December 2024, a BBC investigation revealed that certain tomato purees sold by UK and German retailers likely contain, despite...
Law360, London: The effectiveness of Britain's sanctions regime should not be judged solely by court victories, according to a top UK law enforcement...
The Home Office has launched a consultation on new legislative proposals aimed at tackling the growing threat of ransomware attacks in the UK. The...
The HM Treasury has published details of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) and...
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has issued General Licence INT/2025/5632740 under the UK Autonomous Sanctions Regulations....
Latest Practice Compliance Practice Notes
Understanding and improving gender and other pay gapsThis Practice Note looks at:•what is meant by ‘the gender pay gap’ and other pay gaps related to...
Brexit—implications for data protection [Archived]ARCHIVED: This archived Practice Note provides information on the Data Protection, Privacy and...
Data protection principlesThis Practice Note covers the principles for handling personal data that form the core of the United Kingdom General Data...
Introduction to the EU GDPR and UK GDPRThis Practice Note provides an introduction to both the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation...
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)This Practice Note provides a summary of the UK GDPR regime. For a higher-level introduction to UK...
Latest Practice Compliance Precedents
Social media activity monitoring form1General informationName of person(s) conducting reviewDate of review[Insert name(s)][Insert date]2Review and...
Fraud risk management policy—law firmsSTOP PRESS: On 6 December 2024 the government published guidance to organisations on the offence of failure to...
Key terms for insertion into a services contract for the appointment of a data protection representative in the UK or EEANote: This precedent includes...
Anti-bribery and corruption—code of ethicsBribery and corruption remain major issues in world trade, despite the many dedicated efforts to prevent...
Legitimate interests assessment—data processing—short form1Background informationName and position of person(s) conducting assessment [Insert...
Latest Practice Compliance Q&As
Featured Practice Compliance content
SRA Code 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...
Duties of confidentiality and disclosure 2019
Duties of confidentiality and disclosure 2019The protection of confidential information is a fundamental feature of the solicitor-client relationship...
Conflicts of interest 2019
Conflicts of interest 2019Conflicts of interest can cause difficult and serious problems for solicitors and law firms, both from a compliance point of...
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...
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...
Compliance officer for legal practice—COLP—title and duties 2011 [Archived]
Compliance officer for legal practice—COLP—title and duties 2011 [Archived]The compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) sits at the heart of the...
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...
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...
Money Laundering Regulations 2017—source of funds and source of wealth
Money Laundering Regulations 2017—source of funds and source of wealthSource of funds and wealth was a key focus of the SRA’s Preventing Money...
Pre-employment checks—law firms
Pre-employment checks—law firmsWhile the application form and interview process will give you some assurances as to a candidate's suitability for a...
What are the ramifications for a solicitor who does not comply with Law Society Formula B undertakings and/or did not hold their client's part of the contract at the point of exchange? If the contract later comes into dispute does an action lie with that solicitor or their firm?
When and how can I terminate my retainer?
Solicitors Regulation Authority
Solicitors Regulation AuthorityThe Solicitors Regulation authority (SRA) is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. It...
Risk management policy—law firms
Risk management policy—law firms1Introduction1.1Risk management is central to the regulatory regime under which we operate. [Insert name of firm] is...
Money laundering compliance officer—law firms
Money laundering compliance officer—law firmsThis Practice Note is intended for law firms that are subject to the Money Laundering, Terrorist...
Client conflicts in conveyancing or property matters—when can you act?
Client conflicts in conveyancing or property matters—when can you act?There are two types of conflict: own interest conflicts (sometimes called...
Closing 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...
Dealing with freelance solicitors
Dealing with freelance solicitorsFrom 25 November 2019, the SRA Standards and Regulations introduced a new method of practising: the freelance...
Associated legal terms
Legal activity
This is a defined term in the Legal Services Act 2007.
Qualifying subsidiary
a company (“the subsidiary”) is a qualifying subsidiary of another company (“the relevant company”) if the following conditions are met. The conditions are that— (a) the subsidiary is a 51% subsidiary of the relevant company, (b) no person other than the relevant company, or another of its subsidiaries, has control of the subsidiary, and (c) no arrangements are in existence by virtue of which either of the conditions in paragraphs (a) and (b) would cease to be met.
Residual balance
Firms will often hold money on behalf of clients and, usually, client money will be used in the process of carrying out the matter or returned to the client. However, this is not always the case and sometimes there will be money left over in circumstances where the client has become untraceable or where it has not been possible to return the money to the client. This is a residual balance. Residual balances can arise for a number of reasons, including: • balances inherited on a merger with another firm • client (in)action, eg cheques that have been sent to the rightful owner but never cashed by them, clients who will not provide instructions on how to deal with the balance, clients who have died where the executors or family are unknown and clients who have simply disappeared and cannot be traced • retention money that has remained unclaimed • post-transaction credits—historically some practice management systems permitted the accounts team to reopen an archived file, post credits and cheques not presented and then close it again—this may then not be reported on and even if it is, it can be difficult to engage your fee earners if balances were at zero when they last had physical custody of the file • poor housekeeping, eg untidy bookkeeping, inefficient accounting systems, or incorrect application of disbursements
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