The SRA Handbook is no longer in effect. It was replaced by the SRA Standards and Regulations on 25 November 2019.

SRA Handbook

Managers and employees who are not lawyers

Version 21 of the Handbook was published on 06/12/2018. For more information, please click 'History' Above

Rule 7: Managers and employees who are not lawyers

7.1

If you are a manager or employee of an authorised body and you are not a lawyer of England and Wales, an RFL or a lawyer of an Establishment Directive profession, you must not:

(a)

be held out in any way which suggests that you are, or are entitled to practise as, a lawyer of England and Wales;

(b)

undertake the following reserved work in England and Wales:

(i)

advocacy in open court;

(ii)

the conduct of court litigation;

(iii)

the administration of oaths and statutory declarations;

(c)

undertake advocacy in chambers in England and Wales, except under instructions given by a person qualified to supervise that reserved work;

(d)

undertake the following reserved work in England and Wales, except at the direction and under the supervision of a person qualified to supervise that reserved work:

(i)

the preparation of court documents;

(ii)

the preparation of instruments and the lodging of documents relating to the transfer or charge of land;

(iii)

the preparation of papers on which to found or oppose a grant of probate or a grant of letters of administration;

(iv)

the preparation of trust deeds disposing of capital.

Guidance note

(i)

A non-lawyer manager is subject to the SRA's regulatory arrangements in relation to legal practice outside England and Wales if he or she is a manager of an authorised body.