Importance of competency and training under SRA

Importance of competency and training under SRA for law firms

There shouldn’t be any surprise that the new SRA Standards and Regulations (STaRs) have a major focus on the competency of staff, especially when the Legal Services Board (oversight regulator) is looking at whether solicitors should be the subject of similar re-accreditation requirements as doctors.

Principle 2 of the STaRs requires solicitors and employees to “act in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors’ profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons”. One of the key ways this can be achieved is by ensuring all staff are competent to carry out their roles.

Legal Sector Financial Services Compliance

Posted 18/11/2019

Your requirements under the SRA Standards and Regulations

In the new regulations, the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors has a clear focus on competency and how that should underpin service delivery to clients and compliance with regulations. The SRA Code of Conduct for Firms also emphasises the responsibility of the firm to maintain firm wide compliance and manage an effective competency regime. Here are some extracts from the code that emphasise this:

• “you maintain your competence to carry out your role and keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date”; SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, 3.3.

• “you ensure that the individuals you manage are competent to carry out their role, and keep their professional knowledge and skills, as well as understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, up to date”; SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, 3.6.

• “you keep up to date with and follow the law and regulation governing the way you work” SRA Code of Conduct for Firms, 3.1.

• “you ensure that your managers and employees are competent to carry out their role, and keep their professional knowledge and skills, as well as understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, up to date” SRA Code of Conduct for Firms, 4.3.

No more simple CPD!

A number of years ago the profession moved away from a prescriptive CPD regime where solicitors just had to accumulate 16 hours of training. Now, the profession has a competency-based regime where solicitors and their firms have to assess their training needs and then allocate appropriate training to individuals for them to undertake. Firms need to ensure their staff are completing relevant courses on compliance and regulatory changes, alongside professional and technical courses relevant to their role.

Firms that are accredited to quality schemes, for example the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS), will be required to ensure staff working in the relevant departments undertake the training specified by the Law Society under these schemes.

Non-compliance isn’t an option

The SRA has said that it will question firms and solicitors over competency if this is an issue raised as part of any complaints they receive, so it is important to ensure competency is high on firms’ and solicitors’ agendas.

Download our complete legal overview brochure to learn how The Access Group can help your firm with all aspects of legal competency and training.