Important Information relating to how we operate and our regulatory status. 

By instructing our Firm you understand that you have read and understand the details regarding our regulatory status.

Due to the type of work that we do (‘non-reserved activities’ – as defined by s.12 Legal Services Act 2007), and despite all of our legal work being undertaken by solicitors who are SRA regulated in their personal capacity, the Firm itself (or any operating companies) is/are not regulated by the SRA.

Ever since Legal Services Act came into force on 30 October 2007 private limited companies have been authorised to provide advice concerning non-reserved legal activities without the need for SRA regulation. We are very open and transparent about this and we want you to fully understand how this may or may not affect you before instructing us.

What does “not being regulated” mean for me as a client?

  1. You still get legal advice from qualified solicitors who are individually regulated by the SRA (unless we advise you otherwise) and who meet the same professional and ethical standards set for all solicitors. This means that all of our solicitors comply with the highest standards of ethical conduct by the SRA, and that means they will still provide advice that is in your best interests, regardless of what whether that is best for us or not. That should give you complete peace of mind.
  2. Our solicitors provide you the same level of care and service as they would in a regulated law firm.
  3. We are able to offer significantly cheaper rates and greater cost savings for our clients, as we do not have the same onerous requirements imposed on us by the SRA that we would otherwise have if we carried our reserved legal activities.
    • As an example, it is common for the insurance premiums for a regulated firm with multiple solicitors to cost tens of thousands of pounds annually for the exact same type of work that we do on an unregulated basis for a fraction of the cost, and that would result in us having to double or triple the fees we charge you for the exact same work.
  4. Greater flexibility to provide truly commercial advice, over and above what a law firm would normally do. This means we are able to offer multi-disciplinary services, not just traditional legal advice. This aligns with our business and commercially focused approach to providing you with advice that works for your business to solve your problem.
  5. This also enables us to focus on providing you with excellent commercial and legal advice via payment options that otherwise may not be available e.g. paying monthly via subscriptions. Without the regulatory constraints imposed on traditional law firms, we are able to focus our time more on servicing your needs.
  6. However; it means that there are certain things we cannot do which includes:
    1. Handling client money – this is not needed for the type of work that we do anyway as we do not do e.g. conveyancing which would require you to send funds for the purchase of property to a client account.
    2. Reserved legal matters i.e. appear in court on your behalf, conduct litigation, probate, notarial services, or administration of an oath services.
    3. Immigration work.
    4. Claim management services.
    5. Financial services or activities requiring FCA authorisation.
  7. You will not have access to the SRA’s compensation fund, which is there to provide compensation to the public from e.g. a solicitor appropriating the funds from a client account.
    • In practice we felt this was of limited benefit to our clients because:
      1. we don’t have a client account in the first place, so it would not be possible for us to appropriate funds from a client account; and
      2. in 2023 it only had £18m to distribute. This was not even enough to cover the claims from one issue with one regulated traditional law, Axiom Ince, who had £33m worth of claims against them. So from our perspective, what would be the point of us paying into a compensation fund that does not benefit our clients? From a practical perspective for the clients of every other regulated firm in England & Wales, what benefit does it provide to their clients if the SRA Compensation Fund cannot even cover one claim against one firm? Instead we can pass those cost savings onto our clients.
  8. We are not obliged to have the SRA’s ‘minimum terms’ professional indemnity insurance cover (usually £3m). That insurance can cost tens of thousands of pounds, and not having that operating cost enables us to pass cost savings on to you with the lower fees that we charge. Where we sub-contract a matter to an independent legal consultant, we usually require them to have their own professional indemnity insurance up to a minimum of £1m.
  9. All of our work is strictly confidential and you are protected by the confidentiality mechanisms we have in place. However, it’s unclear whether you benefit from legal professional privilege (although we would argue that you do). The same applies for litigation privilege, however since we do not conduct litigation ourselves under any circumstances, this is not relevant.
  10. Complaints are governed by our Complaints Policy, however all of the usual mechanisms for complaining about Solicitors or our business are available should you have any issues. We do ask though that you contact us first to resolve any issues as we take great pride in our work and our mission.

What if my matter requires “reserved” legal activities?

  1. Under no circumstances will our Firm (or any of our operating companies) undertake work that constitutes a reserved legal activity. That means if you only require a reserved legal activity we are not the firm for you.
  2. In the event that your matter starts as a non-reserved legal matter and then crosses over in to being regulated work e.g. where negotiations and any pre-litigation correspondence fails and you need formally commence litigation by filing a claim form, then we can:
    1. recommend a suitable regulated firm to assist you with the regulated work;
    2. prepare your file so that they have the material information needed to start work quickly; and
    3. brief your appointed regulated law firm, getting them up to speed on what has happened up to the point of them being instructed. This will save you and them time, and it will ultimately save you money as litigators are extremely expensive.

If you have any doubt about how we work, or what type of work we can or cannot do, then please ensure that you ask us by email at [email protected] before you formally engage or instruct us. By instructing us, you understand what we can and cannot do.