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What is a freelance solicitor?
Adrienne Edgerley Harris is a freelance solicitor specialising in legal compliance. Contact her on 07526 705571 or by email at complylegal@outlook.com.
What is a freelance solicitor?
Most of us will spend our professional careers as solicitors in private practice or working in-house. However, there is another way to do what you love: become a freelance solicitor. That is what I have done after a long time working in these other roles.
As a specialist in regulation and compliance, it was prudent to ensure that I started my new life with all the SRA “t’s” crossed and “i’s” dotted. Although there is no formal approval process to become a freelance solicitor, the SRA requires you to register yourself specifically as a freelance solicitor. You operate under your own name and generally, you do not employ staff.
Next, you decide what type of freelancer you wish to be. The requirements are more complex if you are going to do reserved work. However, as I do unreserved work (compliance), having registered my new status with the SRA and sorted out my engagement terms, I was ready to offer regulatory and compliance support to firms.
Why would you want to do compliance?
A very good question – it sounds awfully dull! The short answer is “to support you”. Firms will of course already have their compliance officers- for legal practice and for finance and administration. However, as the regulatory requirements continue to expand, the time to get everything done has become a pressing issue for COLPs and COFAs. (What is a holiday anyway?). No one wants to be sanctioned for non-compliance. That’s where I can help.
What are the compliance challenges?
The SRA’s current focus is on money laundering. Firms are being asked to send in their firm-wide risk assessment and some are being visited- never a comfortable moment, even if your proverbial ducks are in a row. I can help you prepare, so you sleep at night.
How can I help?
Having worked for the SRA and been in private practice and a COLP, I know where the pinch points are and what to do to ease you through these challenges. Get in touch for a no-obligation discussion as to how I can support you.
A free tip (in triplicate!)
Record, record, record. Whether it is a decision on money laundering matters or how you decided that tricky conflict situation, write down why you have decided to proceed as you are. And remember to update your written decision when circumstances change.
