Own interest conflict meaning

This checklist guides you to take appropriate measures to spot, monitor and handle risks linked to conflicts of interest, and to comply with the SRA’s requirements. It mirrors the SRA Standards and Regulations. Requirement Compulsory or recommended Comments (if any) ☐ Implement a robust system to recognise and assess conflicts of interest, ensuring you do not act where a conflict exists unless an exception applies. See: -Practice Note: Conflicts of interest-systems and controls -Precedent: Conflicts, confidentiality and disclosure policy-law firms Compulsory - SRA Code for Firms, paras 2.1, 2.5, 6.1 and 6.2 (Insert any comments you may wish to make regarding your firm’s arrangements) ☐ Create a register of interests held by partners and staff, which you can consult to identify own‑interest conflicts. See Precedent: Register of interests to identify own interest conflicts. Recommended - This will help you identify conflicts and demonstrate compliance with the SRA Code for Firms, paras 2.1 and 2.5 (Insert any comments you may wish to make regarding your firm’s...

In this issue: EU fundamentals Competition and state aid Data protection and cybersecurity Financial services Energy Environment IP Life sciences Regulatory TMT International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers EU fundamentals Commission President delivers 2025 State of the Union speech The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, set out the 2025 State of the Union in Strasbourg on 10 September 2025, underlining that Europe must remain cohesive and defend its principles, democracy and sovereignty amid a more hostile international landscape. She drew attention to pressures from worldwide climate and public health emergencies, rising living costs, and the conflict in Ukraine. The address urged Europe to assume greater responsibility for its own defence, security, technology and energy supply, and appealed for solidarity among Member States, EU bodies and pro-European democratic actors. See: LNB News 10/09/2025 30. Competition and state aid ...

Dorothy House and another v Helme and another [2026] EWHC 75 (Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? One particularly notable issue is the court’s analysis of whether executors bear a positive duty to notify beneficiaries of their interest (see paras [40]–[49]). In practice, if beneficiaries are kept in the dark, they cannot effectively press for their own rights or compel an executor to perform the tasks required of them at all. The decision further clearly demonstrates how very far the court may go when making findings and drawing inferences on a removal application resolved purely on written material and documents, without the testing effect of cross‑examination. Operating under an evident conflict of interest and aware that the claimants’ application to restrain dissipation of the Estate’s assets was listed for Monday, 15 December 2025 (the start of the week in which they had said contracts would be exchanged), the executors nonetheless exchanged and partially completed on Friday, 12 December 2025. On that basis, the Court considered it...

The SRA Standards and Regulations allow law firms and legal service providers to organise their businesses in several formats, depending on whether they deliver reserved legal activities. Options comprise: a single SRA-regulated entity delivering both reserved and non‑reserved services an SRA‑regulated entity delivering reserved legal services, with some or all non‑reserved work carried out by a separate, non‑SRA regulated business (which, importantly, may employ SRA‑regulated solicitors) a non‑SRA regulated entity supplying only non‑reserved legal services, employing SRA‑regulated solicitors a freelance solicitor—see Practice Note: Dealing with freelance solicitors This Practice Note offers guidance to law firms on running a separate business, including allocating parts of a client matter between the law firm and the separate business, which will entail unbundling legal services. It reflects the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA 2007) and the SRA Standards and Regulations, together with separate business guidance issued by the SRA. Unless stated otherwise, references in the Practice Note to: ‘solicitor’ includes Registered European...

Principles of natural justice If an adjudicator infringes the rules of natural justice during adjudication, a serious breach can render the decision a nullity. The principle has three familiar elements: no person should adjudicate their own cause a party must be told the allegations it faces and allowed a fair chance to respond a party is entitled to have its case determined by an impartial and unbiased tribunal In reality, disputes about the first of these are rare in construction adjudication. Should there be any indication that an adjudicator must rule on the propriety of their own behaviour, resignation would ordinarily follow. For guidance on an adjudicator’s resignation, see Practice Note: Resignation by the adjudicator. The courts have repeatedly outlined what amounts to a breach of natural justice, with leading Court of Appeal authorities including Carillion Construction v Devonport Royal Dockyard and Amec v Whitefriars...

THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES TO TRUST-BASED OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES Legal requirements in relation to conflicts of interest Pension scheme trustees are obliged to act solely and faithfully in the best interests of the scheme’s beneficiaries. Nonetheless, trustees may owe obligations to other persons, or have personal stakes, that are at odds with that obligation and may compromise their judgement. It is a core doctrine of trust law that trustees must not place themselves in circumstances where their duty to advance beneficiaries’ best interests conflicts with obligations owed to other parties, or with their own personal interests. Where trustees take decisions while affected by a conflict that has not been suitably controlled, there is a risk those decisions could be questioned by scheme members or set aside by the courts, exposing the process to challenge. It is also essential that the members of a scheme perceive any conflict, or potential conflict, as having been managed properly. Directors of a company acting as a trustee of...

1.1 Failure to spot and handle conflicts, confidentiality and disclosure matters can seriously harm a law firm, such as: 1.1.1 Clients may not receive the standard of service they are entitled to, leading to complaints or negligence claims; 1.1.2 Our standing could be harmed; 1.1.3 The firm, or individuals within it, could be: (a) Subject to disciplinary action by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or another regulator, potentially resulting in fines, disqualification or other penalties; (b) Faced with third-party court claims for injunctions preventing us from acting on a matter and/or for damages. 1.2 An own interest conflict arises where our obligation to act in any client’s best interests on a matter clashes with the personal or commercial interests of the firm or a member of staff on that or a related matter—or there is a significant risk of such a clash. We must never act where an own...

This conflicts and confidentiality decision tree guides you through the conflicts and confidentiality duties in the SRA Standards and Regulations, enabling you to decide whether we may act on a particular matter and what steps you must take to accept instructions. It addresses the SRA’s regulatory obligations relating to confidential information held for current or former clients. It does not consider confidentiality duties owed to non-clients, e.g. under a confidentiality agreement with a third party. For further details on conflicts of interest and confidentiality, please see our Conflicts, confidentiality and disclosure policy. Click below to view or print the full-size PDF version: Note 1—prohibition on acting in an own interest conflict situation An own interest conflict arises where a conflict (or a significant risk of one) exists between: the personal or commercial interests of the firm or a member of our staff; our duty to act in the best interests of any client in relation to their matter or a related matter. ...

It is not clear whether the donor holds a lasting power of attorney (LPA) for property and affairs (P&A), for health and welfare (H&W), or both. As attorneys have determined that the donor’s home should be sold (necessitating a P&A LPA) and that the donor should move into a care home (necessitating a H&W LPA), we proceed on the basis that both LPAs exist and have been registered. We also proceed on the basis that there is more than one attorney. Where authority to act is several rather than joint, the lending attorney may opt out of any decision in which they have a conflict of interests. It is further assumed that: the donor had adequate capacity to enter into the loan the LPAs do not include specific instructions or preferences about when the donor’s home is to be sold and/or when they are to enter a care home (if present, the attorneys should take them into account) the attorney who advanced the loan wishes...