Insights: Improved Practising Certificate Renewal Portal: now live

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Shire Professional Funding is always looking at ways to drive excellence in the legal profession, as part of our Strategic Partnership with the Law Society of England and Wales and our commitment to supporting UK law firms.

ShirePF Craig Reid Headshot

Craig Reid, Sales Director

Last year, following a long-standing collaboration with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Law Society, we brought to you a brand new spread payment portal for Practising Certificate fees, enabling firms who would like to spread the cost of paying their SRA fees over 10 months. Any UK legal practice could apply to spread the cost of its Practising Certificate renewal with a process that takes less than 3 minutes, with the firm’s SRA number and invoice total only required.

'you will now be able to track your application’s progress fully from end to end'

Craig Reid, Sales Director at ShirePF, commented:

“At ShirePF we are always looking to improve not only our finance products, but also how we deliver it to you – the client. In order to be successful in our space, providing an excellent service is key, which is why it is at the heart of what we do. Following feedback from our customers, we have worked hard throughout 2024 to identify any areas of improvement to the portal launched last year and we have invested more into the platform to enhance your experience further.

Applicants can expect a clearer and more self-intuitive process, with the platform guiding you step by step throughout the application. Most importantly, you will now be able to track your application’s progress fully from end to end:

1. Has your application been successfully submitted

2. Has it been approved

3. Have their details been passed onto the funder

4. Has the funds reached the Solicitors Regulation Authority

The application progress will be easily accessible at all times via a unique link sent to the applicant’s email address.

Firms will again get an instant decision with immediate access to the finance agreement which will be e-signed for your convenience and paid directly to the SRA on your behalf, and all associated documents will be emailed to you.

“From our own experience at ShirePF dealing with thousands of UK law firms, most challenges that legal practices and professionals are facing, are outside of their control, such as external economic factors like the increase in cost of living including the many interest rate rises that are becoming the norm. Many key outlays like indemnity insurance and energy bills have risen sharply putting pressure on operational costs and, in turn, business profits and staff wage requests. These all amount to one thing which is pressure on working capital and cashflow.

I am proud that ShirePF is a strategic partner to the Law Society of England and Wales as we can help those legal practices in need. We offer spread payment facilities for any requirement a law firm may have. In particular, as part of our Strategic Partnership we will provide the spread payment facility again for the upcoming SRA Practising Certificate renewal, building upon last year’s success. In 2023, we helped just under 700 firms to spread their SRA fees, many of which have subsequently approached us again as they were in need to spread other recurring or large one-off costs, such as tax, VAT, professional indemnity insurance, and other expenses. This is ultimately our goal – to support as many UK law firms in as many fronts as possible and help them grow.

Our experienced team including sales, marketing and compliance were all involved in the portal’s launch and this year’s further development to ensure the customer experience is at the forefront. We all are proud of the final product and are excited for the 2024/2025 Practising Certificates renewal. I personally am confident that the introduction of the above alongside many little tweaks has made the renewal process even easier and less time-consuming.

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