In-house solicitors could benefit from greater regulatory flexibility ahead of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s much-anticipated new era of simplified regulation.

SRA executive director Crispin Passmore told the SRA Regulatory Compliance for In-house Lawyers event in London this morning that changes such as slashing the SRA Handbook length from 600 pages to nearer 50 would be implemented ‘some time’ next year, but not before the spring.

However, he said in the meantime the regulator will 'look at whether or not there are ways for you to adopt the freedoms that come beforehand’.

Passmore (pictured) said: 'We want people to innovate now, not wait until there’s a new handbook. If there are things you want to do [but] regulation is in your way, then tell us. If we can find a way to regulate you safely then we will find a way, as long as it’s lawful.’

Passmore said the reforms would provide clarity on who in-house solicitors can deliver legal services to.

He said: 'If you’re in a local authority or private company, if you want your in-house expertise to be a revenue stream, sell those services to similar sorts of clients, you should be able to do that if it’s non-reserved services, without having to become an alternative business structure.’

Providing insight into the handbook page-slashing exercise, Passmore said the regulator thought it could get the accounts rules down to 10 pages.

'The accounts rules are 70 pages now. They tell you what day of the week to pay cheques into an account. They give you a definition of “reasonable”… If we’re having to define something like “reasonable” then we have got something terribly wrong.’ 

Passmore said the regulator was looking to put a ‘decision tree’ together to help make it easier for in-house solicitors to do pro bono work.

The SRA expects to publish a consultation on parts of the handbook and code of conduct in June. This will be followed by a consultation on the ‘details’ of the authorisation and practice framework rules.