Insights for consultants

·        immigration work – unless your company is authorised by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner

·        claim management services – unless your company is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority

·        financial services or activities that are required to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority unless acting on behalf of a firm that has the appropriate authorisation

·        any reserved legal services to the public or a section of the public – under the Legal Services Act 2007, the six reserved legal activities are:

(i)      the exercise of a right of audience

(ii)    the conduct of litigation (the issuing of proceedings before any court in England and Wales, the commencing, prosecuting, and defending of those proceedings and the performing of any ancillary functions in relation to those proceedings (such as entering appearances to action))

(iii)  reserved instrument activities (preparing any instrument of transfer or charge for the purposes of the Land Registration Act 2002, making an application, or lodging a document for registration under that Act; and preparing any other instrument relating to real or personal estate for the purposes of the law of England and Wales or instrument relating to court proceedings in England and Wales)

(iv)  probate activities (e.g. preparing any probate papers for the purposes of the law of England and Wales or in relation to any proceedings in England and Wales)

(v)    notarial activities (e.g. activities which were customarily carried on by notaries under the Public Notaries Act 1801)

(vi)  the administration of oaths (i.e. powers conferred on a commissioner for oaths under the Commissioners for Oaths Act 1889; the Commissioners for Oaths Act 1891; and section 24 of the Stamp Duties Management Act 1891)

–            wills or other testamentary instruments;

–            an agreement not intended to be executed as a deed, other than a contract that is included by virtue of [the preceding provisions of this sub-paragraph];

–            a letter or power of attorney; or

–            a transfer of stock containing no trust or limitation of the transfer

Legal Services Board – Reserved Legal Activities

The Law Society Practice Note – Solicitors offering legal services to the public from unregulated entities

SRA Guidance – Unregulated organisations for employers of SRA regulated lawyers

·        your duty to act in the best interests of two or more different clients may conflict – a client conflict; or

·        your own interests and those of a client may conflict – an own interest conflict.

Even before initial interview, you should find out the client’s name and the names of anyone else involved in the matter so that you can identify conflicts.

If you do fall in scope of the AML Regulations, see who your regulator/AML supervisor is and what you need to do to comply with the AML Regulations.

In terms of regulator, the SRA Q&A states that the SRA can only supervise firms for AML purposes that are eligible for authorisation under the SRA Authorisation of Firms Rules. So, for the purposes of the AML Regulations, as your company is not an SRA-regulated firm, the SRA will not be the money laundering supervisor and it will be necessary for you to approach one of the other supervisors set out in Schedule 1 of the AML Regulations. (Note that the Law Society is listed in Schedule 1 but this is de facto the SRA since the SRA is exercising the Law Society’s supervisory role under the AML Regulations. HMRC is also listed but if you think HMRC may be your supervisor, check carefully who they can supervise and what registration requirements they have – see here.)

In terms of compliance, if your activities fall within the scope of the AML Regulations, you must carry out client due diligence (CDD) measures when:

·        establishing a business relationship

·        carrying out an occasional transaction that amounts to Euro 15,000 or more

·        you suspect money laundering or terrorist financing

·        you doubt the accuracy or adequacy of documents or information previously obtained for CDD

If you are required to carry out CDD measures, you must:

·        verify your client’s identity based on a reliable independent source (such as a passport)

·        identify where there is a beneficial owner who is not the client and take reasonable measures to verify their identity and to understand the ownership and control structure of a legal person, trust, company, foundation, or similar legal arrangement

·        assess, and where appropriate obtain information on, the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship or transaction

You can use a risk-based approach to determine the extent and quality of information required for your CDD.

Under regulation 28(12), when conducting CDD you must reflect on:

·        your practice’s risk assessment required under regulation 18

·        your assessment of the level of risk arising in any case

When assessing the level of risk, factors you must take into account include:

·        purpose of a transaction or business relationship

·        size of the assets or of the transactions undertaken

·        regularity and duration of the business relationship

See regulation 28 for what CDD measures and information are required.

For example, for a corporate body, you must obtain and verify:

·        its name

·        its company number or other registration

·        the address of its registered office and, if different, its principal place of business

Unless the corporate body is a company listed on a regulated market, you must take reasonable measures to determine and verify:

·        the law it is subject to

·        its constitution or other governing documents

·        the names of the board of directors (or equivalent management body) and the senior persons responsible for its operations

In addition to standard CDD measures, enhanced due diligence measures (EDD) must be applied in certain circumstances – see regulation 33(1). The list of circumstances in which EDD measures must be applied includes any transaction or business relationship involving:

·        a person established in a high-risk third country

·        a politically exposed person (PEP) or a family member or known associate of a PEP

·        any other situation that presents a higher risk of money laundering or terrorist financing

Regulation 33(6) also sets out a list of factors that you must consider when assessing whether there is a higher risk of money laundering present. However, the presence of one or more of these factors does not automatically mean that it is a higher risk situation.

If you are dealing with a person established in a high-risk country as set out in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) lists on ‘jurisdictions under increased monitoring’ and ‘high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action’, you must apply EDD measures – for more details see here.

If your client is a politically exposed person (PEP), you must apply EDD. A PEP is someone who has been appointed by a community institution, an international body, or a state, including the UK, to a high-profile position within the last 12 months. For more details see here.

If you do not meet your client in person, you are required to conduct EDD on such client.

Make sure to update any risk assessments as things progress and keep documentary evidence of your assessments and checks so that you can evidence compliance if asked.

The Law Society Guide – Customer due diligence

SRA Warning Notice – Client and matter risk assessments

SRA Compliance with the regulations and preventing money laundering Q&A

Government Guidance – Who needs to register for money laundering supervision

Government Guidance – Register or update your money laundering supervision with HMRC

The Law Society – Quick guide to the Money Laundering Regulations 2017

The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017

Website theme/ template: I used a WordPress theme/template as a starting point which I bought from here for a one off cost. I did make the mistake of buying a theme that I found to be quite rigid and requiring additional paid for editing options; so, after struggling a bit with that, I bought another theme which worked very smoothly and had what I needed for no additional costs. A friend (who is a professional in this area – this is his website) helped me customise my website within the theme. This was invaluable (if you need professional help, drop me an email and I’ll make an introduction). I may have been able to get there on my own but it would have taken me a lot of time and the result may not have been as good. I have since then been able to manage and update the website on my own (so any defects, inconsistencies and choice of photos are my sole responsibility!).

Software – email (Outlook) and Teams, Word, Excel etc. – I have a Microsoft 365 Business Premium licence which makes sure I have access to what I need and that my Outlook and Teams calendars are synced automatically. Your hosting provider may also offer email hosting via Outlook but watch out – if you buy your MS licence from Microsoft directly but have your Outlook email hosted by your website hosting provider, your Outlook and Teams calendars may not sync (so, you have to switch back and forth between them to get a full overview of your appointments). I discovered this the hard way and had to spend a whole weekend migrating my Outlook email hosted by Fasthosts over to Microsoft (since Microsoft 365 Premium comes with business email).

I chose Microsoft 365 Premium because of its enhanced cyber threat protections, two-factor authentication for email and back up.

In addition, I have a comprehensive McAfee subscription.

Website content: Be clear about your company’s regulatory status i.e. state that your company is not regulated or authorised by the SRA (although you can say you are personally regulated as a solicitor).

Have a complaints policy.

Have a privacy policy.

Have a section on the website that sets out information required under the SRA transparency requirements (see item 9 in this table).

Testimonials – good to include some on your website at some point.

Ideally, have website T&Cs (especially if you have articles on the website or a blog).

Search engines (such as Google) indexing your website: This did not happen for me automatically and I interfered by creating an account on the Google Seach Console and then uploading an XML sitemap for my website to the search console. Creating an XML sitemap was a little technical but there are many guidance notes on the web about this (and your host provider will likely have instructions for how to do this).

Note: you can check if your website is indexed by Google by typing “site:yourdomain.com” into the Google search box. If your site shows up in this search, this means that Google has already indexed it.

SEO (search engine optimisation): This is something I am still to learn to use. I understand the basic concept and endeavour to use key words in my content but this is as far as I have gone with this thus far.

Other things I have thought about: DocuSign or similar and time recording software. I decided that I did not need a long term subscription for a signing software. And, I find Excel adequate for time recording purposes for my individual needs.

Microsoft 365 business products

You should make clear that clients have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman about the services you are providing as  a solicitor and to the SRA about your professional conduct but they will have no right to complain about your company itself (or services provided by non-authorised persons (unless those individuals are supervised by an authorised person)).

If a complaint is made and not resolved to the client’s satisfaction within eight weeks, your company is required to provide the following information in writing:

·        the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (including relevant timeframes and contact information)

·        if your complaints procedure has been exhausted you must state that you cannot settle the complaint, identify an alternative dispute resolution approved body that could deal with the complaint, and state whether you agree to use the scheme operated by that body.

“Client money” will include:

·        Money that clients pay you on account of your charges or third-party costs (such as fees for expert reports)

·        Any damages that your client receives as part of a settlement of a case

·        The assets of an estate that is being administered by your firm

·        Any other money that you are holding on your client’s behalf to complete a transaction or for investment purposes.

Any fee sharing agreement must be in writing.

No payments must be made for the referral of criminal cases or where the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LAPSO) applies (e.g. personal injury and death cases).

·        The purpose and what you will cover

·        Any charges for the interview

You can conduct an initial interview before verifying a client’s identity if you are only providing legal advice and not doing transactional work. However, note the point re identifying conflicts of interest at an early stage in item 6 of this table i.e. you still need the client’s name and the names of other parties involved pre-interview to assess conflicts. Don’t do an initial interview if there is a conflict of interest.

Cover – client objectives, your role and services you can provide (as well as what services you cannot provide), whether the outcomes will justify the risk and cost, what will happen, any complications that might arise, likely timeline to completion, how you will communicate, costs (realistic estimates and timelines), next steps.

At or after the initial interview, you may decide not to take on a prospective client. If so, tell them and give a reasonable explanation e.g. the matter is outside your expertise, you don’t have sufficient time to handle the matter or you can’t handle it within their time expectations, you have a conflict of interest (although be careful how much disclose about that to avoid inadvertently disclosing information confidential to another client), they are not able to pay your fees, for regulatory (e.g. the work is reserved work) or ethical reasons etc.