Tony Guise welcomes the advent of COLPs & COFAs
The changes which alternative business structures (ABSs) will bring about in the market for the delivery of legal services and to those firms who may not even be considering entering into an ABS remain the stuff of conjecture and nightmare-scenarios abound. However, there is a more tangible change taking place on 6 October 2011 to the way all legal service providers will be required to operate in the future.
The new Solicitors Regualtion Authority (SRA) handbook, which comes into force on 6 October requires both ABSs and solicitors firms to appoint a compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) and a compliance officer for finance and administration (COFA) in order to become authorised. What will the implications of these new roles be and what effect are they likely to have upon the regulated community? Both are creations of the Legal Services Act 2007, where they have the name head of legal practice and head of legal compliance—the SRA has changed the titles and extended the requirement to
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