SRA Standards and Regulations

Application for admission

You may apply for admission in writing in the prescribed form. Following an application for admission, the SRA will issue you with a certificate of satisfaction if it is satisfied that you have met the eligibility requirements for admission as a solicitor set out in this Part. At any time before making an application for admission, you may apply to the SRA for an early assessment of your...

European Communities (Lawyer’s Practice) Regulations 2000

If you are an REL or you were an REL immediately before the end of IP completion day, you will be eligible for admission as a solicitor under Part V of the European Communities (Lawyer's Practice) Regulations 2000 to the extent that they continue to have effect in accordance with the Services of Lawyers and Lawyer's Practice (Revocation etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, if: you satisfy the...

Referrals, introductions and separate businesses

In respect of any referral of a client by you to another person, or of any third party who introduces business to you or with whom you share your fees, you ensure that: clients are informed of any financial or other interest which you or your business or employer has in referring the client to another person or which an introducer has in referring the client to you; clients are informed of any...

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...

Confidentiality and disclosure

You keep the affairs of current and former clients confidential unless disclosure is required or permitted by law or the client consents. Where you are acting for a client on a matter, you make the client aware of all information material to the matter of which you have knowledge, except when: the disclosure of the information is prohibited by legal restrictions imposed in the interests of...

Requirements for recognised training

A period of recognised training must: unless regulation 4.2 applies, be of a duration of a total of at least two years full time, or equivalent; ensure that the trainee has applied and developed the skills as set out in the Practice Skills Standards; be appropriately supervised by solicitors and other individuals who have adequate legal knowledge and experience in the practice area they are...

Authorised training providers

Only an authorised training provider may provide a period of recognised training to trainees. An organisation may apply for authorisation as an authorised training provider and its application must demonstrate that it will meet the requirements of regulations 3 to 5 below. The SRA may, in relation to an application for approval or authorisation: grant the application, subject to such...

Obtaining and delivery of accountants' reports

If you have, at any time during an accounting period, held or received client money, or operated a joint account or a client's own account as signatory, you must: obtain an accountant's report for that accounting period within six months of the end of the period; and deliver it to the SRA within six months of the end of the accounting period if the accountant's report is qualified to show a...

Duty to correct breaches upon discovery

You correct any breaches of these rules promptly upon discovery. Any money improperly withheld or withdrawn from a client account must be immediately paid into the account or replaced as appropriate.

Shortfall in statutory trust account

In cases where a shortfall is revealed between statutory trust monies held, and the beneficial entitlements shown in a reconciled list or best list, the SRA may rectify the position, in whole or in part, by the use of other monies taken into its possession in consequence of the intervention to which that list relates. Where, having applied additional funds under rule 6.1, a shortfall still...