SRA Handbook

Managers and employees who are not lawyers

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Version 8 of the Handbook was published on 01/10/2013. 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;

(e)

undertake the conduct of immigration tribunal proceedings in the UK or advocacy before an immigration tribunal in the UK unless you are authorised by the Immigration Services Commissioner to do that work;

(f)

prepare documents in the UK for immigration tribunal proceedings unless you are authorised by the Immigration Services Commissioner to do that work, or acting under the supervision of a person qualified to supervise that reserved work; or

(g)

carry out immigration work in the UK which is not within (b) to (f) above, unless you are authorised by the Immigration Services Commissioner to do that work or you do the work under the supervision of an individual working in the firm who is authorised under statute to do that work.

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.