Jessica Clay
Jessica specialises in legal services regulation and her clients in the legal sector include law firms and individuals who are subject to regulatory investigations and any subsequent disciplinary proceedings, as well as those seeking advice about regulatory compliance, ethical obligations, changes to business structures and authorisation processes. Jessica also provides policy, regulatory reform, governance and litigation advice to regulators and advises on extensive drafting projects, as well as delivering training on focus areas.
Jessica qualified into the Public & Regulatory Group at Fieldfisher in 2007 specialising in professional discipline and public law, where she developed an interest in legal services regulation, having advised the SRA in relation to its 2011 Handbook. From 2012, Jessica’s legal services regulatory career was spent in-house, first at the Legal Services Board (LSB) and then at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), where she was the Principal Legal Adviser in the General Counsel team. Jessica joined the Kingsley Napley Regulatory team in July 2019. Having worked both in private practice and in-house, gaining experience both in prosecution and defence, ensures that she is ideally placed to advise regulated professionals on how a regulator may view alleged conduct, what action may follow, and how best to defend any allegation.
Jessica is Deputy Editor of the leading textbook on legal services regulation, Cordery on Legal Services. Jessica is also cited as a “Rising Star” in the Legal 500 in both the categories of Professional Discipline and Partnership.