So where are we after six months of operating under outcomes-focused regulation (OFR)? Well the world hasn’t ended, the profession hasn’t imploded and we haven’t seen any public floggings. We have of course seen some high-profile criminal charges against individuals caught appropriating funds from their firms which hasn’t done the profession any favours but, on the whole, everyone appears to have coped reasonably well so far. Well, perhaps not everyone.

Do you remember the Solicitors Regulation Authority at a glance publication about OFR which said that regulation was being transformed in the public interest and for the benefit of clients, that the profession would be responsible for creating effective systems and processes to achieve the required outcomes and that firms would be empowered to implement the right systems and controls for their particular practice? If you do, are you also surprised - or perhaps mildly disappointed - that one of the first compliance dates has already been missed?

Those that were paying attention to the detail will recall that an existing recognised body that was not planning to convert to an alternative business structure had to nominate individual candidates to fulfil the roles of compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) and compliance officer for finance and administration (COFA) by 31 March 2012. As the profession was given plenty of notice about OFR, that date didn’t appear to be unreasonable for the vast majority of firms.

When Lewis Silkin carried out a survey in November 2011, 70% of respondents said they had already identified a COLP, all of which were individuals already at the firm, and 65% of respondents had already identified candidates for the COFA role, all of which were also individuals already at the firm. So five months ago things seemed to be on track to meet the end of March deadline.

However, on 14 March 2012 the SRA announced that it was extending the date in order to give firms more time to finalise their COLP and COFA nominations. Now, if the deadline was extended because the profession had not got its act together between last October when OFR came into force, and this March when the SRA made its announcement, that would look a bit worrying in terms of a regulatory regime which leaves the profession to work out how it will achieve the required outcomes.

I do not underestimate in any way the importance of the COLP and COFA roles or want to downplay the issues that might exist in finding appropriate candidates to take on what are undoubtedly going to be difficult and demanding positions, but even so, surely a period of at least six months was more than sufficient. Has the profession really stumbled at the first hurdle?

Well the short answer is no. It appears that the extension of the 31 March deadline for nominating candidates for the COLP and COFA roles is not because the profession is unprepared, but has more to do with difficulties at the SRA. The nomination of candidates for the COLP and COFA roles has to be made to the SRA on the prescribed form; the problem being that the SRA had not released said prescribed form. Accordingly, firms were unable to submit their nominations. The SRA have said that although the 31 March deadline has been extended, they have not yet set a new deadline by which nominations will have to be made but will write to firms as soon as the prescribed form is complete and a deadline reset.

It has also said that the online nomination form is expected to go live by the end of this month and that it is still the SRA’s intention to make approval decisions on all nominations by the original date of 31 October, when COLPs and COFAs must start fulfilling their duties.

While this restores some faith in the prospects of the profession being able to cope with OFR, it does cause a little anxiety about whether the SRA has resourcing issues of its own which might impact on its ability to deliver the service to which it has very publicly aspired. Let’s hope this was a temporary glitch and that normal service will be resumed shortly. In the meantime the profession is still obliged to comply with OFR - so keep calm and carry on.

Fergus Payne (pictured) is a partner at the law firm Lewis Silkin LLP, and joint head of its Partnerships and LLPs group. Clive Greenwood is a fellow partner and joint head of the Partnerships there