Ethics in focus – navigating today’s regulatory landscape

This webinar will examine recent challenges in upholding professional standards within the profession, the regulatory response—including the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s consideration of mandatory annual ethics discussions—and the practical guidance lawyers should be applying in their day-to-day work.

When did you last revisit the Codes of Conduct? For many, it is at the point of qualification, yet relying on memory alone is rarely enough to ensure compliance in practice. I was involved in the consultation at the outset, reflecting growing concern that ethics training should not be a one-off exercise, but something revisited regularly and with purpose.

Recent years have seen a number of high-profile failures—such as Axiom Ince, SSB Law, PM Law Group and BLB Solicitors Ltd—where core ethical principles were not upheld, in some cases involving fraud and serious misconduct.

Alongside this sits the ongoing fallout from the Post Office scandal, where allegations concerning the conduct of lawyers—including concealment and misleading practices—are only now being fully explored, with potentially far-reaching regulatory consequences.

Topics covered include:

• What is the nature and extent of the problem?
• Why is there an Ethics gap?
• Why is trust in lawyers at such a low ebb?
• What are the current Principles and Rules?
• SLAPPs, NDAs & other guidance on In-house lawyers
• What is the SRA proposing in their most recent consultation?
• How can we ensure we ‘do the right thing’?