L&D planning

Regulatory requirements

Under the continuing competence regime, all solicitors are expected to take responsibility for ensuring they maintain competence to provide a proper standard of service to clients. The SRA is not interested in how much learning and development (L&D) solicitors undertake as long as they remain competent. For further information on the competence regime, see Practice Note: The continuing competence regime.

Firms accredited to:

1. •

   Lexcel

2. •

   Legal Services Board Specialist Quality Mark (SQM)

3. •

   Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS)

4. •

   Law Society’s Wills and Inheritance Quality Scheme (WIQS)

or those seeking accreditation to these, or to any other professional standard, will need to ensure they incorporate any specific L&D requirements into their L&D provision.

There may be specific L&D requirements for practice-specific groups, eg the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). You should check specific requirements with the accrediting bodies.

Health and safety and anti-money laundering (AML) training are statutory requirements for some firms. For more information on health and safety training requirements, as well as training tools, see subtopic: Health and safety policy. We also have dedicated AML training resources,