Registered European Lawyer meaning

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...

At 11 pm (GMT) on 31 December 2020, the post‑Brexit transition/implementation phase, created after the UK’s exit from the EU, concluded. At that moment (in UK law termed ‘IP completion day’), principal transitional measures ceased and substantial changes started to apply across the UK’s legal framework. Before IP completion day, the Establishment of Lawyers Directive 98/5/EC (the Establishment Directive) allowed members of specified legal professions in the EU, EEA and Switzerland to practise in the UK on a permanent footing, provided they registered with one of the UK’s legal regulators. In England and Wales, the relevant regulators were the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Bar Standards Board (BSB). Separate provisions operated for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Lawyers entered on this basis were described as Registered European Lawyers, or RELs. Since IP completion day, the REL scheme has, for the most part, fallen away. On 1 January 2021, the SRA arranged that all SRA‑regulated RELs who had not opted out of the process would automatically become registered foreign lawyers, or...

Practice Note This Practice Note sets out guidance for in-house solicitors on the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs, RFLs and RSLs within the SRA Standards and Regulations. The framework contains two distinct Codes of Conduct: one for individual solicitors and one for firms. Every solicitor, registered European lawyer (REL), registered foreign lawyer (RFL) and registered Swiss lawyer (RSL) authorised by the SRA must adhere to the Code for Solicitors, irrespective of role, setting or working arrangement. There are no tailored provisions for in-house practice: the whole Code for Solicitors applies to in-house lawyers, except for a part engaged only when services are provided to the public, which in-house practitioners may deliver in limited circumstances (see below: When you are providing services to the public or a section of the public). This Practice Note describes how the Code for Solicitors is organised, how it operates for in-house practice and the possible consequences of a breach. References to “in-house solicitors” include RELs, RFLs and RSLs. For more guidance,...