Some early birds have already adopted the new regime, but from 1 November 2016 all solicitors will be required to adhere to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) new approach to continuing competence. This means that, rather than undertaking a random mandatory minimum number of continuing professional development (CPD) hours every year, solicitors will now be required to actually think about and plan purposefully for what they personally need to do, in terms of learning and development activities, to maintain or reach the necessary skill levels required to perform the roles and tasks required by their particular job, to the standards expected.
Working with other people: skills for the new SRA regime
In-house agenda: August 2016
Key themes and developments on the agenda for businesses in August include dealing with the aftermath of the EU referendum result, managing the compliance requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and implementing guidance on the Market Abuse Regulation.
EU/US Privacy Shield: a feast for crows
On 12 July 2016, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision approving the Privacy Shield framework for EU-US personal data transfers in a commercial context.
In principle, this clears the way for cross-border data transfers to US self-certified companies to take place from 1 August 2016, within a framework based on an enhanced version of Safe Harbor that was invalidated in October 2015 following the ECJ decision in the Schrems case.
In-house round-up: Summer 2016
This round-up summarises the developments that generated the most interest from in-house lawyers in the past three months, including Brexit, the formal approval of the General Data Protection Regulation, the implementation of the Market Abuse Regulation, the anti-corruption summit, the first compensation order for workers kept in modern slavery, and a number of interesting commercial contracts cases.
Everything you always wanted to know about being an in-house charity lawyer (but were afraid to ask)
In this webcast, Adrian Pashley, Senior Editor (Charities), Thomson Reuters Practical Law, interviews Darren Heath about his role as solicitor and in-house legal adviser at the charity Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Early in June, the Centre for Ethics and Law, UCL Laws, published the first stage of our Ethical Leadership for In-House Lawyers Project. In this project, we are collaborating with in-house lawyers to understand the ethical challenges they face and help them build their capacity to deal with such challenges. The first stage, the Mapping the Moral Compass Report, is now available in executive and long form formats.
As of today, annual returns are a thing of the past for UK companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs). Instead, they will now need to file a confirmation statement. Like an annual return, a confirmation statement is used to update Companies House records, but there are some key differences to be aware of.
In-house agenda: July 2016
Key themes and developments on the agenda for businesses in July include dealing with the implications of the EU referendum result, the introduction of the new EU market abuse regime and the publication of the Briggs review of the civil courts structure.
UK votes out: après nous, le déluge
On 24 June 2016, the EU referendum result was announced, with a majority of voters deciding that the UK should leave the EU. Once the government notifies the European Council that the UK has decided to leave the EU, the two-year period for the negotiation for exit under Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union can start.
We spoke to practitioners in a range of areas to gauge their reactions on the shorter and longer term implications of this decision.
For more detailed coverage of the legal implications, see the collection of articles at our EU Referendum landing page. For coverage of the business implications as they unfold, see the Thomson Reuters blog: Everything you need to know about Brexit. Continue reading
Modern Slavery Act: vital insights from soft law
At a recent panel I spoke at relating to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA), the Home Office representative was showered with questions regarding the transparency in supply chains provision (Section 54, MSA).







