SRA Continuing Competence for Law Firms - Demonstrating Compliance in Action

Introduction

“I have an up to date understanding of the legal, ethical and regulatory obligations relevant to my role and I have reflected on and address any identified learning and development needs and I am confident to perform my role”

Can you answer ’yes’ to the above question confidently when you apply for your practising certificate? What could you provide as evidence?

Continuing competence applies to all solicitors who have a practising certificate, including those that work in the UK and overseas.

The SRA released their annual assessment of continuing competence on 31 July 2024 which highlights, amongst other things, how the SRA will take action where competence is not maintained.

To ensure that law firms are taking this seriously in line with Section 3.3 of the Code of Conduct for Solicitors and Section 4.3 of the Code of Conduct for Firms, the SRA is going to take a more onerous and intrusive approach to the assessment of continuing competence, which may include spot checks, audits, and file reviews.

Through the SRA’s work in areas such as the AML thematic reviews and other inspections they have found some specific areas of law where continuing competence seems to be an issue - residential conveyancing, probate and immigration - although there are concerns in other areas too.

So, what do your continuing competence records look like? Are you reflecting on your learning and development needs? Are you undertaking the correct training for your requirements?

Presented by expert speaker Jo Morris, this virtual classroom seminar will provide you with practical and easy to understand suggestions of how continuing competence can work for you.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive session will cover the following:

• What is meant by ‘continuing competence’ - a recap of the old and new system
• An overview of the findings from the Annual Assessment of Continuing Competence 2023 and 2024
• The Competence Statement
• A statement of solicitor competence
• The threshold statement
• A statement of legal knowledge
• What the SRA expects you to do
• Reflect
• Plan
• Complete
• Evaluate
• Record
• Annual declaration
• More flexibility - wider range of activities
• Record keeping - what records are required to demonstrate competence including templates
• Reporting to the SRA on your annual declaration
• The future - what happens next with the SRA

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.