CILEx Regulation:
helping you operate at your professional best

In a new approach to presenting disciplinary findings, CILEx Regulation will focus on learning lessons and raising awareness of pitfalls to look out for.

At the recent CILEx National Awards, Fran Edwards, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, said: ‘Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t, because you can’ (see also pages 12 to 17 of this issue). It is an uplifting message and captures precisely the ethos and offering of CILEx. But what does it mean for CILEx members when it comes to regulation?

Regulation helps maintain standards and protect reputations

As a regulator, part of our job is concerned with what you can't do. This is to keep standards high, to protect your reputation as a regulated professional, and to protect CILEx’s reputation too.

Being a member of a professional body comes with responsibilities as well as rights. Through the Code of Conduct, we set high standards of professional behaviour. We make sure that members at certain grades are developing their professional knowledge through CPD. And when things do go wrong, we investigate what has happened — always with an open mind, and always treating people fairly and respectfully. All this sets you apart from other professionals who operate without regulation.

But there’s more to CILEx Regulation than that. A lot of the time, we want to say ‘You can’. We authorise people as Chartered Legal Executives. Through practice rights, we authorise members to work in reserved areas of legal work without supervision. And we offer a unique level of service to people interested in setting up a law firm: welcoming enquiries and applications from a growing number of CILEx members.

Part of being your professional best is about learning, and this includes learning from things that haven't gone well. You'll be familiar with the disciplinary findings we publish in the Journal. We do this to share lessons and help others avoid making similar mistakes. To meet that objective more effectively, we've decided to take a new approach to presenting disciplinary findings.

We're going to focus on what can be learned from individual cases. We'll suggest what you could think about in your approach to your work; ways you could consider acting in certain situations; and the pitfalls to look out for if you find yourself in a similar position.

We'll be developing this and pulling together themed information, so there should always be something useful for your development. We hope that you'll find this a good source of insight to help you operate at your professional best.

PRACTICE NOTES:
THE IMPORTANCE OF OPENNESS AND HONESTY

Every CILEx member is required to declare certain things that may affect their suitability to remain a member and to progress through the membership grades. We call this ‘prior conduct’.

You need to make a declaration straight away if something happens, including:

• being cautioned for or convicted of a criminal offence unless it's ‘protected’ in law or if it's ‘spent’ (Note: Chartered Legal Executives, those with Practice Rights and those applying to become a Chartered Legal Executive or for Practice Rights do have to declare spent convictions.)
• being disqualified from acting as a director of a company or being removed from a charity or public body
• being subject to any investigation or proceedings concerning your fitness to practise by any regulatory or professional body
• certain financial matters which may indicate an inability to act in accordance with sound financial and risk management principles

If something does go wrong and you need to make a declaration, it's important to be completely open and honest. Your openness and cooperation can help us find a quick resolution, which is better for everyone involved. It can also avoid the cost of disciplinary proceedings, enabling us to focus on things that add value to members and the public.

ILLUSTRATIVE CASE STUDY:
ALEXANDER WILSON, ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF CILEx

In March 2018, Mr Wilson declared a conduct matter to us, but his statement about the circumstances was inaccurate. When challenged, Mr Wilson admitted the discrepancies between his account and the true version of events. This led to a misconduct investigation against him. Mr Wilson admitted that he had submitted a misleading report to us and had, thereby, breached the CILEx Code of Conduct by:

• failing to maintain high standards of professional and personal conduct and justify public trust in himself, his profession and the provision of legal services
• failing to act with honesty and integrity
• failing to deal openly with his regulator

Finding

Mr Wilson admitted the allegation of professional misconduct against him in full, and agreed to accept a sanction under a determination by consent order (DBC Order).

Mr Wilson was reprimanded and warned as to his future conduct. Our independent Professional Conduct Panel (PCP) agreed with the sanction and approved the DBC Order.

Learning points

Although Mr Wilson had initially been untruthful, the PCP took into account the mitigating factors:

• He had accepted that the misconduct took place unreservedly and at the first opportunity
• He had shown insight and expressed remorse, and engaged with our investigation throughout
• He had no other record of prior conduct or misconduct
• There had been no loss or harm to clients, the consumer or the public, and no personal gain to Mr Wilson.