SRA Standards and Regulations

Commencement, replacement, and renewal

The commencement date for a practising certificate or for registration in the register of European lawyers, the register of foreign lawyers or the register of Swiss lawyers shall be the date specified by the SRA on the practising certificate or the register. The replacement date for a practising certificate is 31 October following the issue of the certificate. The renewal date for registration...

Recognised training

In order to satisfactorily complete your period of recognised training, you must maintain a record of training which: contains details of the work you have performed; records how you have applied and developed the skills, as set out in the Practice Skills Standards; records your reflections on, and your training principal's appraisal of, your performance and development against, and your...

Apprenticeships

To complete an apprenticeship for the purposes of regulation 3A.1(a)(i), you must meet the requirements set out in the assessment plan for the Apprenticeship Standard for a Solicitor (England) approved by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, or set out in the Apprenticeship Framework specified in the Level 7 Higher Apprenticeship in Legal Practice (Wales). This must include...

Eligibility for admission

You will be eligible for admission as a solicitor if the SRA is satisfied: you have successfully and satisfactorily passed an assessment which is designed to assess your competence against the prescribed competences for solicitors and is conducted by an assessment organisation appointed by the SRA for the purpose; you hold a degree or qualifications or experience which the SRA is satisfied are...

Recognition of Professional Qualifications and Implementation of International Recognition Agreements (Amendment) Regulations 2023

If you are a Swiss lawyer, you will be eligible for admission as a solicitor under Part 2 of The Recognition of Professional Qualifications and Implementation of International Recognition Agreements (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (as amended) if: you satisfy the requirements of those regulations; and the SRA is satisfied as to your character and suitability to be a solicitor.

Academic stage

Your eligibility to commence the academic stage of training will be determined according to the requirements, which may be approved by the SRA, of the relevant approved education provider. You may be entitled to credit for prior certified or experiential learning, which may entitle you to exemption from assessment in some subjects required by the Joint Statement. You must make any application...

Retention

If you are a solicitor and you do not hold a practising certificate the SRA will write to you once a year at the last notified version of your postal or email address to ask you whether you wish your name to remain on the roll. If, following an enquiry under regulation 5.4, you wish your name to remain on the roll, you shall be required to pay a fee of £20.

Dispute resolution and proceedings before courts, tribunals and inquiries

You do not misuse or tamper with evidence or attempt to do so. You do not seek to influence the substance of evidence, including generating false evidence or persuading witnesses to change their evidence. You do not provide or offer to provide any benefit to witnesses dependent upon the nature of their evidence or the outcome of the case. You only make assertions or put forward statements,...

Other business requirements

You must not be a manager, employee, member or interest holder of a business that: has a name which includes the word "solicitors"; or describes its work in a way that suggests it is a solicitors' firm; unless it is an authorised body. If you are a solicitor who holds a practising certificate, an REL, RFL or RSL, you must complete and deliver to the SRA an annual return in the prescribed form....

Conflict of interests

You do not act if there is an own interest conflict or a significant risk of such a conflict. You do not act in relation to a matter or particular aspect of it if you have a conflict of interest or a significant risk of such a conflict in relation to that matter or aspect of it, unless: the clients have a substantially common interest in relation to the matter or the aspect of it, as...