Question of ethics

Q We act for a debt recovery company.

We allow the company to use our letterhead to send out the letter before action.

The address on the letter is our client's, not our address.

Does this mean that our client's office is an office of our practice and if so must it be supervised and managed in accordance with Law Society practice rule 13?A Yes.

If you really want to consider this arrangement, your client's office will be an office from which you practise.

This is because your name appears on the letterhead and you are responsible for the contents of the letter.

Debtors will contact your client and assume that they are speaking to your firm.

You will need to make sure that this office is supervised by a solicitor who is 'qualified to supervise', and that it is his or her normal place of work.

A solicitor is qualified to supervise when he or she has held a practising certificate for 36 months in the last 10 years and has completed 12 hours of management training.

You will also need to inform the Law Society that the office is one of your practising addresses.Please noteLimited liability partnerships (LLPs)The legislative changes which provide for LLPs came into force on 6 April 2001.

For practitioners to 'convert' to LLP status, the process will involve two successive steps - registration as an LLP at Companies House followed by recognition as a recognised body by the Law Society under the new Solicitors' Incorporated Practice Rules 2001.

These rules also came into force on 6 April 2001 and now regulate all incorporated practices, whether companies or LLPs.

An information pack including the new rules is available from professional ethics.

l Question of ethics is compiled by the Law Society's professional ethics guidance team.

Send questions for publication to Austin O'Malley, the Law Society, Ipsley Court, Berrington Close, Redditch B98 0TD; DX 19114 Redditch; tel: 020 7242 1222.