The Solicitors Regulation Authority is preparing to issue a warning notice to the profession on ‘lawfare’, the use of the legal system by oligarchs and others to intimidate and abuse journalists and civil society actors. A first draft has already been prepared, the regulator revealed at yesterday’s annual conference of COLPs and COFAs in Birmingham.

‘Rich people trying to protection their reputation inappropriately, without any due cause, to silence people raising legitimate concerns, is an issue that has come to the fore,’ chief executive Paul Philip told delegates at the opening Q&A session. ‘It’s been used in relation to [Ukraine], it has been raised in parliament, and we are in the middle of that as the regulator of solicitors. We are about to publish a warning the profession on what we expect.’

SRA London

Philip told journalists later that the SRA is dealing with at least 25 cases of alleged strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPS). Some have been reported to the regulator, he said, while others relate to lawyers named earlier this year by MPs under parliamentary privilege.

In the aftermath of the Russian invasion in early March, Tory MP Bob Seely, who led the charge against solicitors in the House of Commons, called on the government to toughen up regulation. The regulator reacted swiftly, issuing revised guidance on 4 March on conduct in disputes.

‘We have come to the conclusion that we need to say more, because SLAPPs is quite a recent thing,’ Philip said yesterday. ‘It [the warning notice] will articulate what we think a SLAPP is, and point out what we think are egregious types of behaviour.’

 

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