The Law Society has told the Solicitors Regulation Authority it remains unconvinced the regulator has raised its game adequately in the wake of the Axiom Ince debacle.
The representative body formally wrote to the regulator last week saying it is not ‘sufficiently assured’ that the SRA is complying with its duties.
The assessment comes after the SRA submitted an assurance report to the Law Society Council in June. SRA chief executive Paul Philip attended the council meeting at the start of this month, where he presented an update on changes made. The Society has now said the SRA has provided insufficient information to be assured of compliance with its duty to act in accordance with the regulatory objectives.
The determination is related to the events leading up to the SRA’s intervention into national firm Axiom Ince and the regulator’s response. Following an independent report, oversight regulator the Legal Services Board found last year that the SRA did not act adequately, effectively and efficiently, and the mistakes made should prompt changes in its procedures.
The LSB pursued enforcement action against the SRA. The solicitors’ regulator responded by saying it had already taken action including consulting on safeguarding client money and addressing the risks of concentrating ownership, management and compliance in a single person.
However the Law Society Council is only ‘partially assured of the SRA’s commitment to learn from those events and to rebuild trust in the ability and commitment of the SRA to act in a way which is compatible with the regulatory objectives’. Council says it therefore cannot be confident that the SRA is discharging its duty properly.
Under internal governance rules defining the relationship between representative body and regulator, the Law Society is the body required to take steps to prevent similar failings from being repeated.
Council says it will continue to monitor additional assurance information that may be provided by the SRA, with a view to assessing whether this is sufficient to be confident and assured of compliance with regulatory duties. The council ‘expects and may specifically request’ updated assurances to be provided at future meetings, the first of which is scheduled for 7 October. Council will also follow the progress of the LSB’s ongoing review of how the SRA handled the collapse of Sheffield firm SSB Law.
An SRA spokesperson said: 'We are already implementing a robust set of actions to improve our regulatory duties in response to the lessons learned from the Axiom Ince case as set out in the LSB directions.
'This includes consulting with the sector on safeguarding client money, addressing risks that can emerge from concentrations of ownership, management, and compliance in a single person, and improving our approach to data and market intelligence.
'We will continue to work constructively with all stakeholders, including the Law Society, and report regularly to our regulator, the Legal Services Board on the progress we are making in implementing our plan and their directions.'
This article is now closed for comment.
20 Readers' comments