In Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass, the Red Queen tells Alice “it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”. These words could just as easily apply to the way solicitors run their practices, now that the new Solicitors’ Code of Conduct is in force.
In any race to gain and keep clients, there is always a chance that the competitors will stumble and fall. The new code seeks to prevent this by placing risk management at its core. It targets three risks in particular: poor client service; the prospect of a negligence claim; and professional misconduct. The antidote to these risks lies in the new business processes mandated by the code. In doing so, it also creates new risks for solicitors.
