Rules and Regulations – Consolidation or Innovation? [2022]

This course is essential for anyone working within the regulated SRA environment who wishes to understand the new regulatory regime in front of us. Introduced in late 2019, alongside numerous Resources to aid understanding, the rules were subsumed under other considerations around Covid and public health. Normal working procedures were upended as we struggled to cope with the new position. But the rules are still there and as lockdown restrictions have eased we need once again to contemplate the renewed environment in which we work. Increasingly, the profession seems to be separating into those firms that are dismantling in favour of innovative smaller operations, or consolidating into bigger groupings of law firms. Which do you favour?

The course will cover

• SRA consultations and the ethos behind them, especially transparency
• New moves towards comparison sites
• Flexibility and public protection
• The new Rules themselves (in outline)
• Particular issues surrounding new patterns of working – who regulates what, exactly?
• Do we need SRA – or any - regulation at all?
• Key points to watch – undertakings and legal professional privilege
• SRA logo – ‘ATOL protection’
• SRA attitude to policing – before and after Covid
• The current trends

Key points to take away

• New legal working environments
• New methods of interacting with clients
• Relaxing of precision in the Rules to enable innovation or consolidation
• The risks associated with innovation
• Future possibilities