This month we have updates for our PEPS and Sanctions, and Conflicts of Interest courses, as well as our regular monthly compliance webinar and policy updates.
We hope you enjoy this release.
What's new?
GRC for Law Firms
PEPs and Sanctions
How do you respond when a client is a politically exposed person, or PEP? What if they are subject to sanctions? This training will build your confidence in identifying PEPs and PEP relationships, and how to follow due diligence procedures. You will also define and explore sanctions, including pre-screening, risk factors, reporting, and applying for a license to act.
Conflicts of Interest
Get practical skills to navigate conflicts of interest – essential if you’re a fee earner or solicitor. Learn about own interest conflict, client conflict, and relevant guidance around confidentiality and disclosure, with expert-led video content, and regulatory guidance to prepare you to recognise and avoid the risk of conflict.
Monthly Compliance Update – March 2025
On the first Thursday of each month, Brian Rogers hosts a 45-minute compliance update webinar for the legal profession. These sessions have proven very popular with our clients and this month we had over 3000 registrants for the live broadcast. These update webinars focus on current and upcoming events within the legal regulatory space and some of the topics covered in this edition were:
Regulator resignations
LSCP and TPMAs
Use of the term ‘solicitor’
SRA looking at first-tier complaints
Cyber Risk Update
The webinar took the form of a fireside chat with Diego Baldini, Chief Information Security Officer, at The Access Group, around cyber threats and mitigation, and cyber regulatory requirements and insights from the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s ‘Risk in the legal profession’ report
On-demand recordings of these webinars are made available through our LMS. You can find these recordings, as well as other webinars, inside the ‘Webinars for Law Firms’ library. You can also register to attend the live sessions by registering here.
Policies and Precents for Law Firms
Our team of subject matter experts are continually horizon scanning for legislative and regulatory changes, and as part of this process we will issue updated versions of our template resources to ensure our clients are compliant and prepared. As part of this release the following policy and precedents templates have been updated, with these new versions replacing their predecessors:
General Management
Supervision Procedures v2.4
Has been updated to take into account The Law Society’s updated Practice note on supervision and to add in a section to note that supervisors are not beyond reproach and supervisees should retain their own independence and moral compass.
Risk Management Policy v1.4
Has been updated to take into account the findings of the SRA’s research into Risk in the Legal Profession published 13.12.24.
Guidance for the COLP and COFA
Compliance Officers - COLP and COFA Guidance Note v2.1
Has been updated with the aim of providing more useful guidance to those in the COLP and COFA roles – such as adding in consideration of the personal liability element and the need to maintain ongoing compliance through regular staff training. The formatting of the COLP checklist and SRA questions for COFA sections have been updated with the aim of making completing them more user-friendly. Anti-Money Laundering Client and Matter Risk Assessment v2.1
Compliance Plan v1.4
Has been updated on a light touch basis to enhance the contents generally.
Human Resources
People Management Procedures v1.4
Has been updated on a light touch basis to enhance the contents generally.
People Management Procedures Supporting Documents v1.4
Has been updated on a light touch basis to enhance the contents generally – for example reference to seeking feedback from new recruits one week after joining the firm has been added into the induction checklist (with an accompanying blog post noted in the endnote to explain why this can be helpful).
Performance Development Policy v1.4
Has been updated on a light touch basis to enhance the contents generally.
Performance Development Policy Supporting Documents v1.3
New sections have been added to the template appraisal forms to encourage consideration of contribution to the firm beyond fee earning, ethical values and the potential impact of the menopause/whether reasonable adjustments are needed (where relevant).
It is recommended that firms adopt the updated versions of these documents without delay to ensure they are fully compliant with recent regulatory and legislative changes.
How to access the update
The content included in this release note is being launched on March 13th, please note it may take up to 24 hours for it to appear in your portal.
Please note, if you are a client utilising our ContentServe solution you will need to download the latest Pathways into your LMS.
GRC for Law Firms
The following content has now been launched for all GRC for Law Firms clients and can be found under the ‘GRC for Law Firms’ library within your Learning application, or by using the Learning application ‘search’ function.
PEPs and Sanctions - (Updated, replaces previous version)
Conflicts of Interest – (Updated, replaces previous version)
Monthly Compliance Update – March 2025 (New)
Monthly Compliance Update – March 2024 (Retired)
Cyber Risk Update (New)
Policies and Precedents for Law Firms
The following content has now been launched for all Policies and Precedents for Law Firms clients and can be found under the ‘Policies and Precedents for Law Firms’ library within your Learning application, or by using the Learning application ‘search’ function.
Supervision Procedures v2.4
Risk Management Policy v1.4
Compliance Officers - COLP and COFA Guidance Note v2.1
Compliance Plan v1.4
People Management Procedures v1.4
People Management Procedures Supporting Documents v1.4
Performance Development Policy v1.4
Performance Development Policy Supporting Documents v1.3
Additional information
What’s Next?
Our next content release is scheduled for April 10th.
In our next release we will have our regular policy template and webinar update content, and will see the updated training courses for SRA Accounts Rules and Whistleblowing.
We hope you enjoy this latest content release and if you have any queries, please take a look at our Help Centre.
If you would like to find out more information about our Legal Learning products or enquire on adding any of these products your account you can find more information regarding this here.
Kind Regards
Access Legal Learning Team