November 21, 2024 Updated guidance for in-house solicitors
Companies are bound by their Articles of Association, through legislation such as the Companies Act 2006, and by legal, accounting, and regulatory frameworks. Depending on the nature of their business, companies may also have to comply to a greater or lesser extent to regulations in areas such as sustainability or the environment.
Broad-based legislation aside, companies may also be required to, or choose to, follow an appropriate corporate governance code. And internally, the day to day running of the organisation may well be governed by internal company culture and process rules.
Directors will naturally expect that every individual within the organisation will comply with those internal guidelines. But directors should also be aware that, in addition to following company rules, in-house solicitors will also have to obey professional obligations and standards as set out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). That’s because by the nature of their training and registration solicitors are not only members of a regulated profession but are also officers of the court.
This places in-house solicitors in a unique position. By the nature of their profession they can play a key role in providing legal and ethical checks and balances to their organisation. But those roles and responsibilities may not be fully appreciated both by solicitors and by company directors. Now, following a thematic review and consultation, the SRA has issued updated guidance which aims to support solicitors in their work within organisations.
Some of that guidance, such as ‘identifying your client’ when working in-house and managing risks when conducting internal investigations, are directly written for solicitors. Other aspects of the guidance are targeted towards company directors, helping them to not only better understand the way in which in-house solicitors can help companies to meet regulatory obligations but also better appreciate what qualities the company can expect from its solicitors. These qualities include demonstrating high levels of professionalism, the provision of independent advice, effective supervision, and confidentiality.
Importantly the guidance also sets out scenarios in which solicitors will not be able to act. These include not approving or facilitating dishonest or illegal actions, not falsifying documents, and not acting in areas outside their sphere of competence.
In launching the new suite of guidance, Juliet Oliver, General Counsel at the Solicitors Regulation Authority said: “These documents reflect the unique challenges and issues that in-house solicitors encounter in their day-to-day roles and aim to support solicitors in meeting these, and to highlight the value that in-house solicitors can bring to organisations in promoting ethical behaviour and managing legal risk.”
