News from the Board

Our Board this month was in Exeter, with our discussion focused on education and training.

The SRA's new strategy establishes a defining purpose for everything we do: driving confidence and trust in legal services. This month's Board discussions were focused on just this.

In this month's blog, I wanted to reflect on two in-depth discussions we had about areas that are fundamental to how we regulate: our investigation processes and approach to consumer protection.

The focus of this month's board meeting was in-depth, informal workshops to explore longer term issues for regulation of the legal sector.

One of our most important jobs as a Board is to make sure we have the right strategy. At our meeting, we considered feedback on our new proposed strategy for 2023 – 2026. It was great to see such extensive, rich feedback.

This month's Board was in Newcastle – our second meeting 'away' this year following our visit to Leeds. We took the opportunity to speak with more than 50 stakeholders from across the north east and some members of the public.

We had an extra Board meeting in June so that we could discuss the feedback from our three-year strategy and business plan consultation and approve the SRA budget requirement for 2024.

Our June Board meeting was a quarterly monitoring session, so we looked at our operational and financial performance, delivery against our business plan and the strategic risk register.

Discussions on our future corporate strategy for 2023-26 which will deepen our work on tech and innovation and put more emphasis on using data and insight to help focus our activity and wider policy debates.

This month's Board was a quarterly monitoring meeting where we explore operational and financial performance, delivery against our business plan and look at the strategic risk register.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel challenged us to think critically about the extent to which our approach to regulation is consumer focused and asked to consider leading more collaboration among legal regulators.

Our first formal meeting of the calendar was held to conclude the Board’s work on three recent consultations – consumer protection for post six-year negligence, the publication of regulatory decisions, and the implementation arrangements for financial penalties.

This was our final meeting of the calendar year and we began by receiving an independent review of our Board effectiveness. An important piece of reflection which will see us making some tweaks to the way we do things.

SRA board meeting in Birmingham - altogether a really productive set of discussions about legal issues informed by local insights.

News from the board - Our Board came together yesterday for our quarterly virtual meeting and we were delighted to welcome solicitor Nicola Williams to her first session with us as a full member after some months as an observer.

Our July Board meeting should have been in Leeds but sadly the weather defeated us and we have had to rearrange our visit. But we had a busy agenda nonetheless, starting with a workshop discussion on next steps on the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) and post six year run off cover (PSYROC).

Regular readers will know how seriously we take the issue of money laundering. It is far from a victimless crime – supporting, as it does, the activities of terrorists, people smugglers and drug traffickers.

The pandemic means that it is three years since our Board last met in Wales. So I was delighted to be able to return to Cardiff this month.

This month's meeting was the first at our refurbished Birmingham office. The switch to hybrid working meant we needed to revamp our office layout to major on collaboration and networking and the Board were fortunate to be able to see the new layout on only the second full day of operation.

This month’s blog focuses on the invasion of Ukraine. The Board has been kept up-to-date with the action the SRA has been taking over the last month, but this was the first chance we have had to discuss the issues together.

Our Board started 2022 with a face-to-face meeting. I hope this is a good sign for the future! It certainly meant we were able to properly welcome our two new Board members – Lisa Mayhew, Co-Chair of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, and Nicola Williams, who is Legal and Compliance Director and Company Secretary of Welsh Water.

Our final Board meeting of 2021 was a busy one. Coming so close after our November Compliance Officers Conference in Birmingham, and the week of virtual events that followed it.

Since lockdown last year I have really missed the opportunity to get away from the screen and talk to people face to face.

The SRA Board held a quarterly monitoring meeting this week. Here we explored operational and financial performance, delivery against our business plan and looked at the strategic risk register.

Our June meeting was a real landmark - the first meeting of the Board since SRA Ltd  started regulating as a distinct legal entity within the Law Society Group on the 1st of June.

One of our most important tasks as a Board is to make sure the current and future activities of the SRA are the right ones. That means we need to keep our 'finger on the pulse' of what is happening in the sector.

One of the perennial preoccupations for all boards is whether we are focusing resources on the 'right' things. An important part of this is checking in with stakeholders on what is being planned.

I was delighted to be joined by four new members for our first Board meeting of the year. Ann, Dermot, Elizabeth and Vikas all bring expertise and fresh perspectives to the table.

One of the key components of the work of any board is the opportunity to really get to grips with the complexities of the day to day work of the organisation.

It is now six months since lockdown measures were first introduced as a result of Covid-19. We have all had to adapt and evolve the way we work and the Board had a useful discussion about both the impact of the pandemic on our operational work and on the profession and sector more widely.

At the time I applied to become a member of the Board I had recently finished a five-year appointment as the Chair of a Health Board in Wales.

Through my voluntary and community work I was aware of the impact legal services have on the lives of people and especially vulnerable groups and the importance of access to services and justice.

Getting out of the way is in my view a priority for a modern regulator and doing that effectively means harnessing the views of a range of people.

We are recruiting four new Board members - two lay (non-solicitors) and two solicitors, as current members, Dame Denise Platt, David Heath, Elaine Williams and David Willis reach the end of their terms.

SRA Board Chair Anna Bradley chaired the first of three virtual events we are holding against the backdrop of the wider Black Lives Matter movement.

Our Board is now well practised at coming together virtually and so we tried our hands at a different kind of more strategic discussion at a workshop on strategic risk.