15 Firms and Companies Line Up For Outside Investor Licenses In UK
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the regulatory body for more than 120,000 solicitors in England and Wales, announced it’s in serious talks with 15 law firms and legal departments to adopt outside investor licenses.
The SRA accepted its first applications yesterday and expects to hand out licenses by the end of February, Legal Week reports.
Traditional law firms seeking outside investors, such as Irwin Mitchell, as well as companies looking to run legal departments in areas previously only available to firms owned solely by lawyers, are among the mix of applicants. While restructure fees are based on the complexity of the application, applicants can expect a flat fee of £2,000 and an additional £150 per person intending to provide legal activities.
“One size doesn’t fit all, so we’ll have to assess each application on its merits. While the preparation work has been very comprehensive, we will need to remain flexible in our approach to deal with these new firms,” said SRA ABS team manager Ann Morgan, according to Legal Week.
“What we do know is that we have to be rigorous and robust–as robust as we are with traditional law firms. For example, we’ll be asking for the employment history of everyone going back five years–we need to have detailed information relating to those who want to be regulated by us.”
