The new code will provide clearer guidelines on conduct, but the delay in implementation means parts may already be out of date. Fiona Woolf says solicitors need to help identify problems


It may not be quite as hotly awaited as the unveiling of Gordon Brown’s cabinet, but the new Solicitors Code of Conduct is now less than a month away. Its introduction heralds a radically simpler and clearer set of professional conduct rules for solicitors based on principles.



The new code not only updates The Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors (1999), but brings together all the previous sources of professional conduct into a single code and introduces a set of core duties.

None of these should be new to solicitors – the need to protect confidentiality, avoid conflicts of interest and ensure we provide proper client care is almost part of our DNA.



Last week, I hosted an event for City practitioners looking at the particular impact of the new code on large practices.



There are, I think, some unique challenges for larger, commercial firms where a lot of fee-earning work is not capable of standardisation. These centre on a number of key rules:

l Rule 2 (client relations) – the need for client confirmation of the retainer and terms of business.

l Rule 3 (conflicts of interest) – the details of the new definition of conflict.

l Rule 4 (confidentiality) – are the details of the information barriers realistic for most firms?

l Rule 5 (business management) – building on the former practice rule 13, this new rule requires ‘arrangements’ to be in place for a range of management functions.



But importantly, from a practical perspective, all firms need to review their fee-earning and management structures.



The Law Society is on hand to support solicitors. A hard-copy edition of the new code is to be published later this month. Along with the code comes a book providing commentary and guidance.



An exciting online training course has also been designed to help you to understand the contents of the new code and get up to speed on the impact of the changes that it will introduce. It presents a series of scenarios to illustrate how the code will have a practical impact upon many of the day-to-day activities of legal practice, including taking on new clients, accepting instructions and instructing counsel.



By reference to these scenarios and the text of the code itself, your understanding and appreciation of it will then be tested using a series of multiple-choice questions.



However, I think it is fair to say that if we, or the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), were starting from scratch, we would not necessarily have written the rule book in the same way as we did more than four years ago.



I am not proud that it has taken so long to reach your desks, but we have the labyrinthine approval procedure (including the Lord Chancellor) under the Access to Justice Act to thank for much of the delay.



Because it has been a long time in gestation – and with the endless advance of technology – some of the code may already be anachronistic. With this in mind, we need you to tell us what does not work, what is a hindrance to competition and innovation, or what simply does not make sense to the modern law firm. We have set up a dedicated email address for you to send us your suggestions for improvement: code@lawsociety.org.uk.



Informed by your comments and concerns identified from calls made to our practice advice service, the Law Society will be in a position to press the SRA for improvements to the code of conduct.



This work is co-ordinated by our new regulatory affairs unit, which is now open for business. We want to influence regulation from the profession’s point of view.



One of our key objectives is to look for ways to reduce the cost and burden of regulation. We are now better equipped to take the profession’s concerns to the SRA, with the weight of the profession behind us.



The launch of the unit is just one of the ways in which the Law Society is changing. The unit has specific responsibility for developing policy on regulatory issues that the Law Society wants to raise with other regulators, including the SRA and the Legal Complaints Service (LCS). It supports the work of the new regulatory affairs board, which provides a strategic approach to representing the profession’s interests on regulatory matters, raising issues proactively with the SRA and other regulators, and ensuring that effective responses are provided to consultations.



The Law Society has already responded this year to eight consultations from the SRA on topics as varied as the minimum salary for trainees and the question of whether regulatory decisions should be published. We will be posting the responses on our website.



Whilst the Law Society cannot intervene in individual cases being dealt with by the SRA and LCS, we need to know of areas where you consider that either the substance or the process of regulation could be improved, and you can do this by contacting the unit at: regulatoryaffairs@lawsociety.co.uk.



Fiona Woolf is President of the Law Society