Provision of legal services

The legal services we provide

  • We provide legal advice and services to clients. However, Complete Projects is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority (the “SRA”).

  • All legal services provided are supervised and delivered by senior, qualified and practising solicitors or barristers with the requisite experience in the relevant practice area upon which they are advising or providing services.

  • All legal services provided by us are non-reserved legal services.

  • Under the Legal Services Act 2007, we are permitted to provide non-reserved or unregulated legal services in England and Wales without being a law firm authorised and regulated by the SRA.

  • SRA regulation is not required unless certain "reserved" legal activities are being provided.

  • Keith Bottomley (Managing Director and Energy, Governance and Legal Structuring Lead) is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and is authorised and regulated by the SRA in his personal capacity under SRA ID 393931.

What are reserved legal services (i.e. the services we do not provide)

  • Reserved legal services are:

    • exercising rights of audience (the right to appear before a court)

    • conducting litigation

    • preparing certain documents relating to probate and conveyancing

    • acting as a notary public and administering oaths

Why we are not regulated by the SRA

  • SRA regulation is only required if carrying out certain ‘reserved’ legal activities (detailed above) which we do not provide.

  • Based on the services we provide and our client base, we have decided to operate under the new model for delivering unreserved legal services in the UK which the SRA introduced in November 2019.

Why our lawyers maintain their personal SRA registration

We recognise the importance of the protections afforded to our clients by our lawyers continued professional status as solicitors regulated and authorised by the SRA.  These include:

  • the requirement for continuous professional learning and development;

  • their continued adherence to the ethical and professional standards applicable to solicitors as set out in the SRA Principles and the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors.  These are available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority's website, www.sra.org.uk; and

  • legal privilege continuing to apply to legal advice.

What this means for you

Ethical and professional standards - Our lawyers are required to continue to maintain the highest levels of ethical and professional standards. These include the duties to act with honesty and integrity and in the best interests of clients and obligations relating to confidentiality and conflicts of interest.

Professional indemnity insurance and limitations on liability - Although we are not subject to the SRA’s compulsory professional indemnity insurance requirements we have professional indemnity insurance to cover the non-reserved legal work we undertake. For further details of our insurance coverage please contact us at keithbottomley@completeprojects.co.uk.

Legal professional privilege - Although the law on legal professional privilege is complex and continuously evolving, the benefit of legal advice privilege which protects communications between a lawyer and client made in connection with the giving or receiving of legal advice may be asserted in respect of legal correspondence from lawyers at Complete Projects to their clients.

SRA Compensation Fund - The SRA Compensation Fund is a discretionary fund that provides a safety net for risks that professional indemnity insurance is unable to cover. Clients of Complete Projects will not be able to claim under the SRA Compensation Fund in respect of services carried out by Complete Projects

Complaints - Complaints will be dealt with internally by Keith Bottomley or Mick Edmondson. If your complaint is not dealt with satisfactorily you may be able to complain to the legal ombudsman (see below).

Complaints procedure

Under the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors our lawyers have a personal duty to establish, maintain and provide an adequate complaints handling system.

Complaints regarding our legal services should be made to Keith Bottomley at keithbottomley@completeprojects.co.uk (email subject “Complaint”).  These will be handled in accordance with our complaints policy.

If you are not satisfied with the result of that complaint, or if it has not been resolved within eight weeks, you may have the right to take any complaint about the services performed by our lawyers to the Legal Ombudsman. 

This right applies to you IF you are small business that meets the criteria for a “micro-enterprise” at the time of the complaint - ie you are a business with fewer than 10 staff and an annual turnover or balance sheet value not exceeding €2 million.

Please contact us at keithbottomley@completeprojects.co.uk for details of our complaint policy. 

If you think we have breached any of the SRA Principles, you can report the matter directly to the SRA (see www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor). 

Questions

If you have any questions about the legal services we provide. Please get in touch: