The Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group is a not-for-profit representative body and independent stakeholder group, providing professional and pastoral support, training and regulatory representation on behalf of all Sole Practitioner solicitors in England and Wales. Sole practitioners represent over one third of all solicitor firms in the UK.
In a recent interview with IASME, Penny Raby spoke about adaptions sole practitioners have made during lockdowns discussing how being a sole practitioner can be a lonely business which is why the social aspect of groups and conferences is so important. The pandemic has forced these events to be ran on platforms such as Zoom and for sole practitioners to communicate exclusively online. Penny went onto mention that this has had a positive effect on the webinars they run at the Sole Practitioners Group as they are now reaching 100+ people nationwide, with the recording available to their 4,000 members to catch up on at their leisure. She compares this to their regional group presentations which would have 15-20 people in attendance. This shows how the industry has adapted to online communication and prompts the question of are online events and meetings here to stay?
She went onto to talk about how sole practitioners are much more vulnerable to cyber-crime as they work on their own, even if they are of limited company status, if a data breach does occur, they are going to be in the hot seat. For these reasons, cyber security has been a key topic in The Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group conferences for the last three years, helping sole practitioners to understand the risk and take appropriate steps for prevention. Whilst working from home has worked well for many sole practitioners it is vital they have protective measures in place to mitigate risk.
Cyber security is becoming increasingly important in the legal sector. The National Centre for Cyber Security identified the legal sector as a top target for cyber criminals. Further to this we have seen a dramatic increase in Solicitors Regulatory Association scam alerts, with a 52% increase in alerts when comparing the first six months of 2020 to the first six months of 2021. With the new working from home culture opportunistic fraudsters are taking advantage and anyone in the legal sector needs to be aware of the risk and have robust measures in place to protect their firm and clients. The Law Society recently reported on a survey by their partner, Hiscox that the number of businesses reporting attacks has increased from 38% to 43% in their annual report. Lawyer Checker understand the risk to sole practitioners and as accreditors can support and navigate them through the accreditation process for Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus and IASME Governance. Helping sole practitioners to mitigate risk from the ever-growing threat of internet borne crime.
It has recently been announced that Penny has been shortlisted for this year's national Law Society’s Award for Sole Practitioner of the Year 2021-2022.
The Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group is available to any person who works as the only solicitor in their business and is completely free of charge. You can sign up for a membership via their website. Whether you are thinking of starting your own practice, already running your practice or even thinking of selling, merging or closing your practice, the Sole Practitioners Group can support you.
