Leading City Law Firms Unhappy with SRA

Thu, 26 Feb 2009

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) being faced with a rebellion from some of the City’s leading global law firms who are unhappy at the regulatory measures under which they must operate. The impending revolt comes in advance of two studies into the regulation of corporate solicitors by the College of Law and the Law Society.

Leading law firms believe the SRA’s expertise to be overly focused on high street general practice firms, and thus lack understanding of the client issues and larger deals encountered by corporate lawyers . David McIntosh, chairman of the City of London Law Society, said, ‘There is dissatisfaction because there is no differential in the rule or in the approach regarding very different firms. There is a general view that one size does not fit all. What regulation is required for the firm that advises my mother is not going to be the same as the regulation required for the firm that advises IBM or ICI.’

A study from the College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute is set to make recommendations for three alternative models for regulating City law firms. The most radical suggestion will advise creating a body as an approved regulator under the Legal Services Act 2007, while the other two propose a modified SRA that would include a specific department to deal with corporate regulatory issues.
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.