November 2017

Don’t forget to register for your firm firm’s secure badge

Most firms have met the 1 November deadline for registration.

If you have not registered your firm yet, you need to act immediately.

Find out more

Money laundering risk

The Government has published its second National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing: http://bit.ly/2zlBJi2.

As expected, the assessment found that legal professionals are at risk of money laundering because of the potential to use client accounts to distance funds from their illicit source, and property transactions continue to be identified as at risk to money laundering, though much less so to terrorist financing.

Read our latest anti-money laundering guidance.

Get the latest help and advice from the National Cyber Security Centre

Find out what steps you can take to help protect your firm and your clients.

The National Cyber Security Centre has a new guide for small businesses.

The five steps the NCSC Small Business Guide suggests small businesses follow are:

• Backing up your data
  Five things to consider when backing up your data
• Protecting your organisation from malware
  Five free and easy-to-implement tips that can help prevent malware damaging your organisation
• Keeping your smartphones (and tablets) safe
  Five quick tips that can help keep your mobile devices (and the information stored on them) secure
• Using passwords to protect your data
  Five things to keep in mind when using passwords
• Avoiding phishing attacks
  Steps to help you identify the most common phishing attacks

Read the small business guide

Helping consumers choose their lawyer

We’re consulting on how to implement recommendations from the Competition and Markets Authority aimed at providing better information to help consumers choose their lawyer.

The key proposals are that

• firms should publish client satisfaction information
• firms should provide more information about typical transactions
• firms should publish full price information

We’re running a series of webinars to explore the issues with you and to help you think about how you want to respond to our formal consultation.

You can watch past webinars or register for upcoming ones at these links.

Past webinars

Quality information (webinar held on 25th October 2017) 

WATCH RECORDING ON DEMAND NOW

DOWNLOAD SLIDES NOW

Service information (webinar held on 1st November 2017)

WATCH RECORDING ON DEMAND NOW

DOWNLOAD SLIDES NOW

Upcoming webinars

Wednesday 8^th November – 12.30:  Price information

REGISTER NOW

Wednesday 22^nd November – 12.30: Making information accessible for consumers

REGISTER NOW

Get involved with shaping national apprenticeships

SQA would like to invite licensed Conveyancers, Solicitors, and FCILEx practitioners to help shape the national apprenticeship programme.

SQA is inviting qualified lawyers to apply for roles as Writers and Peer Reviewers for the Conveyancing Technician and Licensed Conveyancer end-point assessment of the apprenticeship programme.

If you are interested in sharing your occupational expertise and would like to find out more about how to become involved in the national apprenticeships programme, SQA is recruiting to a number of positons.

Find out more from the SQA: http://bit.ly/2yZAX9L

Improving the home buying and selling process

The government is asking for ideas and evidence on how the home buying and selling process can be improved.

We urge all conveyancers to read and respond to the Call for Evidence.

On 28^th November you can join our webinar with Beth Rudolf of the Conveyancing Association and Matt Prior of the Department for Communities and Local Government, who is leading this work in government.

Find out more about the Call for Evidence

Register for our webinar

Could you help shape the future of specialist conveyancing and probate practice?

We’re looking to appoint new lawyer members to our governing Council. These are important positions that help shape the future of specialist conveyancing and probate.

Find out more and apply

(This recruitment is being managed for us by the Whitehall and Industry Group)

Complaints handling research and tips

The Legal Ombudsman has published some research and helpful tips on complaints handling.