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
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has published a blog post explaining its prioritisation framework for assessing licence...
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has launched a consultation on draft updated guidance concerning the research, archiving and statistics...
HM Treasury (HMT) has published guidance explaining how the UK digital identity and attributes trust framework interacts with the Money Laundering,...
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has published its annual plan for 2025–26, outlining a total budget of £1,012m. The plan details four organisational...
This week's edition of Practice Compliance weekly highlights includes the Legal Ombudsman’s latest public interest decisions, the FCA Chief...
Latest Practice Compliance Practice Notes
High-risk third countries trackerOrganisations caught by the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer)...
Data sharing—practical complianceSTOP PRESS: This document is being updated to reflect implementation of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA...
What’s new and what’s changed in 2018—Practice Compliance [Archived]ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. For more...
Money Laundering Regulations 2017—good practice for law firmsThe information in this Practice Note has been drawn from various SRA...
New and updated content 2026—Practice ComplianceThis Practice Note tells you, on a month-by-month basis, whether we have made substantive amendments...
Latest Practice Compliance Precedents
Internal complaint report form—law firmsA complaint can include any expression of dissatisfaction about the service received from us.Complaints may be...
Guide to financial sanctions for staffWhat are sanctions?Sanctions are non-permanent international restrictions or prohibitions aimed at:•encouraging...
Letter to complainant—written response—deadlock or final letter[Insert complainant’s name][Insert complainant’s contact address]Our ref: [insert...
External complaints policy—law firms1We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service.2We acknowledge that we may not always get it right,...
Internal complaints handling procedure—law firms1Introduction1.1We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service. We acknowledge that we may...
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
Gaming machine
In this Act “gaming machine” means a machine which is designed or adapted for use by individuals to gamble (whether or not it can also be used for other purposes)
Issue of shares
(a) references (however expressed) to an issue of shares in any company are to such of the shares in the company as are of the same class and issued on the same day, and (b) references (however expressed) to an issue of shares in any company to an individual are to such of the shares in the company as are of the same class and are issued to the individual in one capacity on the same day.
Outcomes-focused regulation
A style of regulation introduced by the SRA on 6 October 2011 and which is applied to all those it regulates.
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