Yesterday (31st October 2017) the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) held its Compliance Conference at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham.
Over 1000 delegates were in attendance to hear Chief Executive Paul Philip set out the SRA’s strategic objectives, as well as insightful talks from a range of other experts.
Whilst it might be presumed that a day hosted by a legal regulator would be not something that would leave you feeling upbeat about the profession, the day was thoroughly enjoyed by our staff that attended the event.
Paul Phillip began his talk by setting out the four key strategic objectives for the regulatory body. These are all about “consistent high standards”, “ensuring proportionate regulation” and “helping people make informed choices”. This was largely focussed on providing clear information on quality and price, making “regulatory arrangements work as effectively as possible”, and taking steps to “improve our overall effectiveness”.
This was then followed by a discussion about how solicitors would be trained and also looked at access to the profession in the coming years. Given the size and prominence of this subject, we will cover it independently of this article.
For conveyancers, the key points were all about the transparency, GDPR and cyber risk.
It is highly likely that from about 2019, your firm will be required to provide price, complaints and quality data to the SRA, in order to allow consumers to have better transparency of choice when buying legal services. This information is likely to be made publicly available and shared with comparison style sites.
The issue of cyber threat was talked about extensively and the SRA reinforced the key messages contained within the recent Risk Outlook.
They reminded attendees of the four most significant areas of threat, and the need for firms to be protected against hacking, email modification, ransomware and CEO fraud.
Sian John who leads security for Microsoft gave the very clear tip of “patch, patch and if you aren’t sure patch again.” This was in relation to the cause of most hacks being down to out of date software.
Where ensuring verification is concerned, COLP of Brightstar Law, Michelle Rosen also indicated the use of Lawyer Checker’s Account & Entity Screen and Consumer Bank Account Checker on all of their cases.
Chris Harris, Managing Director of Lawyer Checker who attended the event stated: “When you leave your home to go on holiday, you might lock your door, turn on your alarm, tell your neighbours and set up lights to go on and off with timers. Fraud prevention is the same. You should adopt a multi-level approach using all available tools to protect your client’s money.”
