Dear R. Mar

Freedom of Information Request – Our Ref: FOI/BS/1387

Thank you for your email today requesting information. I am treating this
as an information request under the Law Society Freedom of Information
Code of Practice ("the Code").

You have requested access to the following information:

“There are many "varieties" of "Alternative Business Structures" which
have been licensed by the SRA.

Could you please state how many Alternative Business Structures

a] have just two owner-managers/Company Director/ Partner - one a
"non-lawyer" and one a "lawyer"

b] have just one owner-manager who is a lawyer but does not have  a
"non-lawyer"component in the ownership of the ABS

c] that are licensed but do not currently meet the "licensable criteria"
and might be in need of help from SRA to make them licensable again.”

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) is a part of the Law Society
but acts independently in carrying out its regulatory functions. The Law
Society is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act (the FOIA) as it
is not a designated authority, but has adopted its own voluntary Code of
Practice which closely reflects the FOIA. The Code may be found at:

[1]http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/Get-in-touc...

The Code applies to all information held by the Society, including the
SRA, and the Information Compliance Team deals with all requests received
under the Code.

I am currently dealing with your request. Bob Stanley, Information
Compliance Manager, will aim to respond formally by 13 May 2015 which is
20 working days from the receipt of your request.

Your sincerely

Joao Curro

Information Compliance Officer

The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL

t: 020 7242 1222 (Ext 4539)

f: 020 7320 5685

[2]www.lawsociety.org.uk
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must not copy it, forward it, use it for any purpose, or disclose it to
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this email is not authorised to conclude any contract on behalf of the Law
Society by email.

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Thank you.

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Dear R. Mar

Freedom of Information Request – Our Ref: FOI/BS/1387

Further to my colleague Joao Curro’s email of 14 April 2015, please find
below the response to your information request under the Law Society’s
Freedom of Information Code of Practice ("the Code").

You have requested access to the following information:

There are many "varieties" of "Alternative Business Structures" which have
been licensed by the SRA.

Could you please state how many Alternative Business Structures

a] have just two owner-managers/Company Director/ Partner - one a
"non-lawyer" and one a "lawyer"

There are 77 firms who have 2 partners/owners; one of whom is a non-lawyer
and the other who is a lawyer.  A lawyer (as defined in the SRA Handbook
Glossary 2012) means a member of one of the following professions,
entitled to practise as such:

(i)             the profession of solicitor, barrister or advocate of the
UK;

(ii)            a profession whose members are authorised to carry on
legal activities by an approved regulator other than the SRA;

(iii)           an Establishment Directive profession other than a UK
profession;

(iv)          a legal profession which has been approved by the SRA for
the purpose of recognised bodies in England and Wales; and

(v)           any other regulated legal profession specified by the SRA
for the purpose of this definition.

b] have just one owner-manager who is a lawyer but does not have  a
"non-lawyer"component in the ownership of the ABS

There is 1 firm who has only 1 partner/owner who is a lawyer.  Again, a
lawyer is defined as above.  The SRA is currently engaging with this firm
on this matter.

c] that are licensed but do not currently meet the "licensable criteria"
and might be in need of help from SRA to make them licensable again.

There are 2 firms who do not have both a lawyer and non-lawyer manager and
therefore do not currently meet the “licensable criteria” as defined in
rule 14 of SRA Practice Framework Rules 2011 (this includes the firm in
[b] above).  Again, a lawyer is defined as above.  The SRA is currently
engaging with both of these firms.

I hope this information is of use.

Yours sincerely

Bob Stanley
Information Compliance Manager
The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL
t: 020 7242 1222 (x4117)
f: 020 7320 5685

[1]www.lawsociety.org.uk
[2]Corporate Solutions Logo -wide.jpg

This email is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient then you
must not copy it, forward it, use it for any purpose, or disclose it to
another person. Instead please return it to the sender immediately and
copy your communication to [3][email address]. Please then
delete your copy from your system. Please also note that the author of
this email is not authorised to conclude any contract on behalf of the Law
Society by email.

Stay up to date by registering for the Society’s e-newsletters at
[4]www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/newsletters.

To help us improve our service, calls may be monitored or recorded for
quality and training purposes.

Thank you.

References

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3. mailto:[email address]
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Dear R. Mar

Freedom of Information Request – Our Ref: FOI/BS/1398

Thank you for your email today requesting information. I am treating this
as a new information request under the Law Society Freedom of Information
Code of Practice ("the Code").

You have requested access to the following information:

“1] What is the longest time that any ABS has not met the licensable
criteria even though it remains licensed?

2] How long does the SRA give as "latitude" for any ABS structure that
does not meet the licensable criteria to meet the licensable criteria?

3] Has the SRA sanctioned any ABS for not being licensable?”

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) is a part of the Law Society
but acts independently in carrying out its regulatory functions. The Law
Society is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act (the FOIA) as it
is not a designated authority, but has adopted its own voluntary Code of
Practice which closely reflects the FOIA. The Code may be found at:

[1]http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/Get-in-touc...

The Code applies to all information held by the Society, including the
SRA, and the Information Compliance Team deals with all requests received
under the Code.

I am currently dealing with your request. Bob Stanley, Information
Compliance Manager, will aim to respond formally by 10 June 2015 which is
20 working days from the receipt of your request.

Your sincerely

Joao Curro

Information Compliance Officer

The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL

t: 020 7242 1222 (Ext 4539)

f: 020 7320 5685

[2]www.lawsociety.org.uk
[3]Corporate Solutions Logo -wide.jpg

This email is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient then you
must not copy it, forward it, use it for any purpose, or disclose it to
another person. Instead please return it to the sender immediately and
copy your communication to [4][email address]. Please then
delete your copy from your system. Please also note that the author of
this email is not authorised to conclude any contract on behalf of the Law
Society by email.

Stay up to date by registering for the Society’s e-newsletters at
[5]www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/newsletters.

To help us improve our service, calls may be monitored or recorded for
quality and training purposes.

Thank you.

References

Visible links
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2. http://www.emailhosts.com/ct/ctcount.php...
4. mailto:[email address]
5. http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/newsle...

Dear R. Mar

Freedom of Information Request – Our Ref: FOI/BS/1398

Further to my colleague Joao Curro’s email of 12 May 2015 please find
below the response to your request under the Law Society’s Freedom of
Information Code of Practice (“the Code”).

You have requested the following information:

“1] What is the longest time that any ABS has not met the licensable
criteria even though it remains licensed?

2] How long does the SRA give as "latitude" for any ABS structure that
does not meet the licensable criteria to meet the licensable criteria?

3] Has the SRA sanctioned any ABS for not being licensable?”

1.       What is the longest time that any ABS has not met the licensable
criteria even though it remains licensed?

It would not be possible to answer this question without going through the
files relating to all ABSs (there were 374 ABS firms as at 3 June 2015).

In order for us to find the answer to this question we would need to
manually look through each of these 374 files. The time required to do
this would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 set by Government
regulations for Freedom of Information and Data Protection requests.
Therefore we are unable to comply with this part of your request.  For
more information please follow the link below:

[1]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/...

2.       How long does the SRA give as "latitude" for any ABS structure
that does not meet the licensable criteria to meet the licensable
criteria?

Please find below a  link to the SRA Authorisation Rules 2011 – the full,
correct title is “SRA Authorisation Rules for Legal Services Bodies and
Licensable Bodies 2011”

[2]http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handboo...

The relevant rules in this instance are:

Rule 23 – Unforeseen temporary breach of certain conditions and
eligibility criteria; and

Rule 22 – Revocation and suspension of authorisation

This sets out the time limits for the licensable body notifying the SRA of
an issue and if rectified within the time frame set in the rules the body
remains licensable.  If not done within that timeframe then the SRA has
the power to revoke authorisation under Rule 22.

It should be noted that these rules do not provide for “latitude” but a
rule-based timeframe for rectification of unforeseen issues.

3.       Has the SRA sanctioned any ABS for not being licensable?

As with your point 1 of your request, it would not be possible to answer
this question without manually looking through each of the 374 files.  The
time required to do this would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 set by
Government regulations for Freedom of Information and Data Protection
requests. Therefore we are unable to comply with this part of your
request.

It may be useful for you to refer to the SRA’s publication policy and
published decisions relating to ABSs (links below):

[3]http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicito...

[4]http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicito...

[5]http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/news/press/201...

I hope this information is of use.

Yours sincerely

Bob Stanley

Information Compliance Manager

The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL

t: 020 7242 1222 (Ext 4117)

f: 020 7320 5685

[6]www.lawsociety.org.uk
[7]Corporate Solutions Logo -wide.jpg

This email is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient then you
must not copy it, forward it, use it for any purpose, or disclose it to
another person. Instead return it to the sender immediately and copy your
communication to [8][email address] then delete your copy
from your system. Please also note that the author of this email is not
authorised to conclude any contract on behalf of the Law Society by email.

Have your say on the future of the Law Society: find out more. Join the
discussion on Twitter [9]#LawSociety2020 or email
[10][email address].

Stay up to date by registering for the Society’s e-newsletters at
[11]www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/newsletters.

To help us improve our service, calls may be monitored or recorded for
quality and training purposes.

Thank you.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/...
2. http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handboo...
3. http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicito...
4. http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicito...
5. http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/news/press/201...
6. http://www.emailhosts.com/ct/ctcount.php...
8. mailto:[email address]
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10. mailto:[email address]
11. http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/newsle...