Conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest can cause difficult and serious problems for solicitors and law firms, both from a compliance point of view and in your client relationships. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates the ability of solicitors and law firms to act when there is a conflict of interest or a significant risk of a conflict of interest.

The SRA Codes of Conduct (the SRA Code for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs (Code for Solicitors) and the SRA Code for Firms) refer to two types of conflict of interest—own interest conflicts (sometimes called solicitor-client conflicts) and client conflicts of interest. You can never act where there is an own interest conflict. You cannot act where there is a conflict between two or more clients unless:

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one of two specific exceptions applies, and
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additional safeguards are met

A third category of ‘commercial’ conflicts can arise in practice. These are the sorts of conflict that do not breach any regulatory requirements, but may cause commercial difficulties for your firm if they come up, eg in your relationship (contractual or otherwise) with one or more clients—see Practice Note: Conflicts

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