Regulation strategy consultation

28 January 2010

Responding to the launch of the Solicitors Regulation Authority strategy paper, Achieving the right outcomes, Law Society President Robert Heslett says:

"The Solicitors Regulation Authority is consulting on a proposed shift in the way it regulates to adopt an outcome-focused approach. For that to succeed the input from the profession, as well as the public, is paramount in ensuring that any change by the SRA yields the best solution. There will be justifiable apprehension across the profession that a new code of conduct is to follow one so recently introduced. However, the Society welcomes the prospect of a move away from a prescriptive rules-based approach to one that recognises the professionalism of the solicitors' ethos.

"Outcome-focused regulation has potential benefits for firms in that it could give solicitors flexibility to manage their approach to clients to meet the outcomes without having to strictly comply with rules which may prove unnecessary for particular clients. The public interest remains paramount and should be well served by this new approach, which should realise cost efficiencies over time. Firms will need certainty of approach to enforcement and training and guidance from the Law Society and the SRA. A considerable change of culture will be required both of the firms and of the SRA, and the significance of these changes should be recognised by all. The Law Society is interested in views as to how far this will be achievable in the tight timescale."