Law Firms: SRA Code of Conduct, Charging Methods, Client Interviews

This study delves into the SRA Code of Conduct for law firms, discussing professionalism, fair practices, and dispute resolution. It also explores the different methods of charging in law firms, including hourly rates, flat fees, contingency fees, and hybrid arrangements. Additionally, it provides insights into the purpose and process of client interviews in legal firms. The study concludes by highlighting the importance of the legal system and the challenges it faces.

PORTFOLIO

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SRA Code of Conduct.................................................................................................................4
Various methods of charging in law firm...................................................................................6
Client Interview in legal firms....................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The study is about law firms in consideration with legal matters of professional conduct,
methods of charging in law firm and interview checklist for trainee solicitors. SRA code of
conduct focuses on training of solicitors in which they meet Principles of code of conduct and for
the organisations they work for meeting the right requirements. The study discusses the methods
of charging done in law firms and the various aspects involved in them. The file provides check
list of interview for candidates for trainee solicitors.
SRA Code of Conduct
The code of conduct describes the standards for professionalism, and what public expects from
individuals. Here is a glimpse for the same:
Code of Conduct for trainee solicitors
a) Maintaining trust and acting fairly
I) Trainees have to be fair in not allowing personal judgements affect professionalism.
II) Trainees do not misuse their position or take unfair advantage of clients.
III) Trainee has to perform all undertakings.
IV) Clients have not to be misled (YASHIN, I. and KLYGA, A., 2018).
b) Dispute resolution
I) Trainees do not misuse evidence.
II) Trainees do not influence substance of evidence.
III) Trainees do not provide benefit to witness dependent upon nature of evidence.
IV) Trainees are only authorised to make assertions or representations to the court.
Coming to the main principles of SRA code of conduct, the principles are as follows:
a) The trainee solicitor has to uphold the rule of law and proper administration of justice.
b) Acting with integrity.
c) Trainee solicitor should not allow their independence to be compromised (Blackwell, 2019).
d) Trainee solicitor has to act in the best interests of the client.
e) Trainee solicitor has to provide a proper standard of service to the clients.

f) The behaviour of trainees have to be in a way which maintains trust the public places has in
oneself and in the provision of legal services.
g) The trainee has to comply with the legal and regulatory obligations and deal with regulators
and ombudsmen in open, timely and co-operative manner.
h) Trainee has to run one's business and carry out role in business effectively and in accordance
with right governance and sound financial management and risk principles.
I) The business has to be run in a way which encourages equality of business opportunity and
respect for diversity.
j) The trainee has to protect client money and assets.
These principles are mandatory to follow and basically apply to everyone working in the law
firm. The principle does not allow other person to do something on other's behalf which would
be a breach of the principles (YASHIN and KLYGA, 2018).
Relevance of SRA in practice
Talking of using them in practice, when two or more principles come in conflict, the
Principle which will be used will be the one which will better serve the public interest. For
example, principle of serving the client in best interests and another principle of not misleading
the court. Here, the latter on will have to be followed as this is the one suited for general public
interests and ethical behaviour.
The use in practice can also be described in the following way 'These principles embody
the ethical requirements on firms and individuals involved in legal services. These principles can
be used as a reference when facing an ethical dilemma.' These are the statements of behaviour
which set the tone for professional personality for solicitors. These principles are over arching as
well as all pervasive which means breach of Principle may result in a disciplinary action. These
apply not only to solicitors but also to other non-solicitor employees along with managers
working in a law firm (Blackwell, 2019).
Journal for the code
The code can be found in Handbook of SRA. The code is divided into sections and chapters as
provided below:

Section 1: You and your client Chapter 1: Client care
Chapter 2: Equality and diversity
Chapter 3: Conflicts of Interest
Chapter 4: Confidentiality and disclosure
Chapter 5: Your client and the court
Chapter 6: Your client and introductions to
third parties
Section 2: You and your business Chapter 7: Management of your business
Chapter 8: Publicity
Chapter 9: Fee sharing and referrals
Section 3: You and your regulator Chapter 10: You and your regulator
Section 4: You and others Chapter 11: Relations with third parties
Chapter 12: Separate businesses
Section 5: Application, waivers and
interpretation
Chapter 13: Application and waivers
provisions
Chapter 13A: Practice overseas
Chapter 14: Interpretation
Chapter 15: Transitional provisions
Various methods of charging in law firm
Hourly
There are many lawyers who charge on hourly basis. There are associates who yield a lower
hourly rate than partners. Associates may take more time to research a legal issue than a partner
who has prior experience to rely on (Semple, 2020).
Arrangements that involve hourly rates which include a retainer that represents an upfront
deposit on legal services. After the retainer exhausts the clients may be billed on monthly basis
for legal fees.

The advantage of this arrangement is that the client gets the bill reflects the real time
which the attorney had put in the case. It may be helpful in the case where work does not require
much time.
Flat fees
The common arrangement for lawyers is to charge flat fees. This arrangement is more common
in cases and law types which are well-defined and in which lawyer can predict with some
certainty how much duration will be the case of (Hersch, 2017).
The advantage of this arrangement is that it removes uncertainty for the clients. Here
clients get a free will to communicate over matters without being afraid of being charged extra
for such communications. It also encourages lawyers to work more efficiently because the pay is
not increased by taking of more time.
Contingency fees
It is another common form of arrangement which takes the form of contingency fee. This
arrangement involves attorney receiving a percentage of the client's verdict or settlement. If
client loses the case the client does not owe the lawyer anything.
This type of arrangement is common with personal injury law and medical malpractice
cases. Clients get the advantage of getting legal representation without having to pay upfront for
it.
Hybrid arrangements
The lawyers here take stock of the clients' needs and attempt to cater them. These form of
arrangements include using an hourly rate but applying a minimum and maximum amount for
legal representation (Semple, 2020).
Considerations
Here a number of factors can affect the amount a lawyer charges for a particular case. For eg:
novelty of the legal issues involved.

Difference between costs and disbursements
The legal costs can be divided in two parts:
a) Professional fees: This is charged for the work undertaken by law firm on client's behalf. For
instance, reviewing of documents, providing advice and preparation of letters or court
documents.
b) Disbursements: The money paid to a third party by a law firm on client's behalf in order to
advance on legal matter. For instance, court fees or fees payable to medical professional.
The costs are thus inclusive of both professional fees as well as disbursements.
Charging of VAT
VAT is charged at the rate of 20% on the legal services provided to the clients in UK. VAT is
basically tax charged on goods and services provided in a country. There is an appreciable
amount of time spent in preparing VAT returns for arranging payment of the tax due. As it is a
complex process, and involves changing regulations, it takes time for computation of VAT costs
by solicitors.
Client Interview in legal firms
This is the stage where client first comes, meets and interacts with the lawyer or law firm. These
are the few steps which can be followed in interviewing the client (Kmetyk, 2017).
a) Greeting the client
b) Formalities such as name of the client and other details.
c) Questioning techniques ( Open ended, Leading questions)
d) Conversing with the client about the matter.
e) Structuring of the interview:
I) Preliminary problem identification stage.
II) Chronological overview stage
f) Theory development and verification stage
g) Concluding the interview.

Purpose of client interview
When an attorney interviews a potential client in need of legal help, the purpose of interviewing
the client is to collect information to help solve the client's problem.
The questions which can be asked to the clients are:
a) Why did the client come in today?
The client can be asked about the expectations from the firm and confirm the same to the client
about the firm's expertise.
b) Has the client worked with the attorney before?
The client can be asked the question to know about the past cases taken up by the client and also
help understand the attorney about the knowledge of law system to the client (Evans and Price,
2017).
c) Why did the client pursue the matter?
This question will help know what led the client to take legal action and allow some valuable
background that can help prepare legal arguments.
d) How can the client be helped?
This will show the concern for the client about the law firm and putting their priorities set right
ahead.
e) Speak to the client about the case
This can be an open-ended question where customer can be asked about the case to tell openly
about the issues in the case. Close attention has to be given on what the client speaks and
emphasis is given on what can be the priorities about the client (Kmetyk, 2017).
f) How would the client like to handle communication with the office?
The client has to be asked the question as when can the client be asked the questions relevant and
communication be done in free time of client. The client can get copies through mail, message
and person can be also contacted through phone.
g) What are the expectations of the client?
The clients should never be made false promises and assure them that whatever best can be done
by the law firm will be done. The final resolution will depend on a variety of factors has to be
reminded to the clients.
h) What concerns most about the case to the client?

The client has to be asked this question to know whether it is the time line of the case or the
money being put in which concerns the client. The client has to be told about the strengths and
weaknesses of the case.
Common failings
The common errors or failings which come from the attorney side can be not taking client in
confidence with the case, not communicating about whether client has enough time to spend on
the case, the prior expenses not being fully discussed etc. These can be solved on the one to one
communication with the client (Evans and Price, 2017).
CONCLUSION
The study concludes that the legal system is vast having its intricacies and law firms are there to
help simplify the process for clients. The legal system is considered as upright for being
organized in following rules and regulations and help bring the cases to a solution. Although it
may take time which is the drawback faced and fast-track courts introduced will try to help solve
the problem.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
YASHIN, I. and KLYGA, A., 2018. RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT FOR
BARRISTERS AND SOLICITORS IN ENGLAND. In Language. Culture.
Translation (pp. 165-167).
Blackwell, M., 2019. Conduct unbefitting: solicitors, the SRA and tax avoidance.
Duparc, F., 2018. Happy birthday SRA!.
Hersch, A., 2017. Disbursement funding: The benefits for SME law firms. Precedent (Sydney,
NSW), (139), p.46.
Semple, N., 2020. Billing without Bilking: Regulating Time-Based Legal Fees. Available at
SSRN.
Semple, N., 2019. Regulating Contingency Fees: A Consumer Welfare Perspective.
Kmetyk, K., 2017. Legal status of patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys under the United
Kingdom law. Юридичний вісник. Повітряне і космічне право, (4), pp.98-104.
Evans, N. and Price, J., 2017. Managing information in law firms: changes and
challenges. Information Research: An International Electronic Journal.22(1). p.n1.
Empson, L., 2018. Elite interviewing in professional organizations. Journal of Professions and
Organization. 5(1). pp.58-69.