A law firm is obviously a highly regulated environment. Professional qualifications are mandatory to undertake many aspects of legal work. Supervision of non-qualified staff is essential in many others.
This can create a complex matrix for tracking who has/does what – and making sure relevant accreditations are renewed (supported by the appropriate evidence), as required. Regulation obviously also extends to having appropriate indemnity and other insurance in place, creating another layer of administration.
Qualifications
A firm of solicitors is rarely that. More often it is a firm of solicitors, barristers, CILEX, trainee solicitors, paralegals, police station accredited reps and more – all of whom have different requirements regarding attaining and retaining accreditation and/or being supervised in their roles.
There are then enhanced requirements for running a law firm or being a manager or office holder. Supervisor roles also require a higher degree of experience than simply achieving an entry level of qualification – and the supervisor requirements in Legal Aid areas of law are highly specific and idiosyncratic. Supervisor forms are rarely sent to the LAA without bouncing back for additional information/clarification.
Having detailed knowledge of these different regimes is more the work of a lifetime than the work of a moment. We have that lifetime of knowledge on tap.
Subscriptions
To add insult to injury; once you are qualified to be something, you must apply and pay to renew your accreditation each year. This requires different forms, different times of year, and different types of evidence, depending on which renewal you are dealing with.
None of these processes are particularly difficult in themselves (although the frustrations of dealing with the mySRA website at renewal time are well known) – but they all rob you of a disproportionate amount of time, compared to letting us get on with the job for you, which we can do.
Insurance
The current professional indemnity market is being described as the hardest since demutualisation over 20 years ago. Smaller firms, even those with low-risk profiles due to not undertaking any work in the regulated financial sector, are finding premiums rising; often because minimum premiums are being applied, which are disproportionate to their turnover. Understanding the professional indemnity market and having relationships with relevant brokers is key to having access to PII which is competitively priced and appropriate for your firm’s risk profile. With our experience and aggregate purchasing power, we can save you money.
Policies for public and employers’ liability are easier to source from a much wider market of providers. The same is true of office contents insurance. But it is another job on the to-do list – and we can tick this off for you if you would like.