SRA boss poised to beef up her executive team

Solicitors Regulation Authority chief Sarah Rapson could double or even triple the size of her senior executive team as she embarks on a turnaround plan at the beleaguered regulator.

Speaking to the Law Society’s Council yesterday, Rapson said comparable organisations typically have between seven and 12 senior executives. The solicitors regulator historically had four in addition to the CEO. This increased to five when Rapson brought in former Slaughter and May solicitor Deborah Jones on secondment as executive director, transformation. Jones is deputy managing director of the Payment Systems Regulator.

Speaking to the Law Society Council yesterday, Rapson continued the charm offensive against a deeply alienated regulated community that she began when interviewed by the Gazette six weeks ago. Unusually for the SRA’s CEO, she gave a speech and answered questions, attending for the full day. The contrast with her predecessor Paul Philip was stark, one Council insider said, and surely calculated.

Law Society president Mark Evans voiced the hope that representative body and regulator can now be ‘critical friends’, telling Wednesday’s meeting: ‘I have found Sarah very open, and willing to listen and collaborate.’

The title of Rapson’s address was indicative: ‘Fixing the foundations and rebuilding trust in a changing environment.’

‘Regulation is a two-way street,’ Rapson began. ‘We can’t regulate if we can’t work with those we regulate. We have to rebuild and reestablish trust. This organisation can’t keep going on in the same way and must change. But change won’t happen overnight.’

Rapson reiterated that the SRA will not ‘shy away’ from the regulatory failures exposed by the collapses of Axiom Ince and SSB Law. ‘We have a lot of good people but in too many areas we have fallen short,’ she confessed. The SRA is ‘spread too thin’, has been ‘too reactive’ and investigations ‘take too long’.

Rapson said she wants to hear from solicitors about ‘what kind of regulator the SRA should be over the next three, five and 10 years’.