One of the comforting things for you to know in these difficult times is that regulators like the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are taking a pragmatic approach to regulatory enforcement. However, you need to ensure that where you are unable to meet some or all of your regulatory obligations you make and maintain notes that explain why you have or have not been able to do something.
Cybercrime has increased since the Covid-19 crisis struck, therefore you need to ensure you and your colleagues are taking all reasonable precautions to protect client information, money and assets – our recent webinar goes into more detail about the cyber threats being faced by firms like yours.
You have a duty of care to your staff working remotely and must ensure that their health and safety is looked after. It was interesting to note from one of our webinar polls that over 30% of firms have not been holding online meetings with all their staff during the lockdown period. A lack of communication could have a negative impact on staff who may feel isolated or have mental health issues, so where possible regular communication within firms should be encouraged. You can watch the full webinar on 'how to maintain compliance whilst working from home' here.
Many firms are trying to find ways to source more work through various types of marketing, however, you need to ensure you comply with the publicity rules, for example, your marketing must not be targeted. Any marketing you do undertake needs to be sensitive to what consumers may think about it; you don’t want to come across as taking advantage of people’s suffering, such as those getting divorced.
Maintaining client confidentiality is key when working remotely, especially when there are other people in the same location, for example, spouses, children, etc.; you must take reasonable steps to stop client information being seen by anyone who is not authorised to see it.
Providing a competent level of service to clients must remain a high priority for you, and therefore you must ensure that the ongoing competency of staff is monitored, and where appropriate training is provided, and supervision enhanced. Online training is now a good way to ensure the provision of training is maintained.
Since the Covid-19 crisis struck many firms have seen an increase in the number of data subject access requests being made. Some firms will have been unable to comply due to the lack of access to personal data stored in closed archive facilities or in unavailable data back-up systems. To avoid complaints, where you are unable to comply fully or in part with a request, you should let the data subject know why and when it is likely you will be able to fully comply. Our recent data protection blog goes into more detail about the data protection issues currently being faced by firms.
With such a major change in the way you operate you should consider carrying out a data protection impact assessment to see what, if any, risks there are to the personal data you process, and what mitigation steps it may be appropriate for you to take.
Appropriate client due diligence measures need to be taken to ensure the risk of money laundering is reduced as much as possible. The SRA is still undertaking its thematic review into how firms are complying with money laundering obligations and is requesting to see firm-wide risk assessment and AML policies and procedures; ensure you update these documents if you need to make any changes as a consequence of operating remotely.
The SRA is also providing some very useful information on its website in relation to compliance during the Covid-19 lockdown, especially its Q&A page where it deals with areas like bank reconciliations, banking cheques, confidentiality, compliance officer absences, conveyancing undertakings, client due diligence, etc.
We are committed to helping our customers in these difficult times and can provide various resources and services that can help you protect your firm, all of which can be accessed remotely, including:
- Compliance helpline
- Compliance webinars with Q&A sessions
- E-learning training library
- Learning management system (LMS)
- Risk & compliance system and advisory services
- Policies & precedents bank
Watch our recent webinar where we discussed the above in more details: the challenges law firms face by operating remotely during the Covid-19 crisis and provided guidance on how to address these items.