SRA Handbook

Managers and employees who are not lawyers

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Version 12 of the Handbook was published on 31/10/2014. For more information, please click 'History' Above

Rule 7: Managers and employees who are not lawyers

7.1

If you are a manager or employee of an authorised body or an employee of a recognised sole practitioner and you are not a lawyer of England and Wales, an RFL or a lawyer of an Establishment Directive profession, you must not:

(a)

be held out in any way which suggests that you are, or are entitled to practise as, a lawyer of England and Wales;

(b)

undertake the following reserved work in England and Wales:

(i)

advocacy in open court;

(ii)

the conduct of court litigation;

(iii)

the administration of oaths and statutory declarations;

(c)

undertake advocacy in chambers in England and Wales, except under instructions given by a person qualified to supervise that reserved work;

(d)

undertake the following reserved work in England and Wales, except at the direction and under the supervision of a person qualified to supervise that reserved work:

(i)

the preparation of court documents;

(ii)

the preparation of instruments and the lodging of documents relating to the transfer or charge of land;

(iii)

the preparation of papers on which to found or oppose a grant of probate or a grant of letters of administration;

(iv)

the preparation of trust deeds disposing of capital.

Guidance note

(i)

A non-lawyer manager is subject to the SRA's regulatory arrangements in relation to legal practice outside England and Wales if he or she is a manager of an authorised body.