Tina Campbell welcomes the SRA’s U-turn on conflicts & confidentiality
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced its intention to make wide ranging amendments to the rules on conflicts and confidentiality. The current process of consultation with the profession was launched several months ago, when the ink was barely dry on the last set of “wide ranging” changes (now in rrs 3 and 4 of the Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007). The 2007 amendments suffered a tortuous journey from the widespread calls for change in 2000, to government approval in 2006. Why then, so soon, are further amendments required?
Blame
Some practitioners may be asking whether the Law Society is to blame for the failure to get it right last time. Surely, it must be their fault that the 2007 changes have not proved sufficient? Others may be wondering whether after so much consultation and redrafting it is actually possible to produce a single set of rules applicable to the wide spectrum of law firms in this country.
So, what went wrong with rr 3 and 4, to have necessitated a further overhaul? The
