Legal Services
This subject is tested through ethical dilemmas rather than abstract rules: a short scenario, and a question about what a solicitor is permitted or required to do.
The SRA Principles and the requirement to act in the best interests of each client are the anchor points most questions are built around.
- The SRA Principles and their application to conduct scenarios
- Client care, conflicts of interest and confidentiality
- Regulation of legal services and the different legal professions
- Money laundering and financial crime obligations
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Written for this page only, in the same single best answer format as the 240+ questions in the Legal Services section of the course.
A solicitor is asked to act for a client purchasing a business. The solicitor’s spouse is the seller and stands to receive the sale proceeds personally. Both the buyer and seller are sophisticated commercial parties who are content for the same firm to act, and no confidential information is at risk. What must the solicitor do?
Where a solicitor’s own interest, or that of someone closely connected to them, conflicts with a client’s interest on the same matter, this is an own-interest conflict. Unlike a conflict between two clients, an own-interest conflict of this kind cannot be managed through consent, an information barrier, or a different fee earner acting. The solicitor, and generally the firm, must decline to act, regardless of how sophisticated the parties are or whether the matter later becomes contentious.
Authority: SRA Standards and Regulations 2019, SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, own-interest conflicts.
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