From the date of cessation of a firm, no legal work may be carried out on any file, no matter how urgent. This includes making applications to the Land Registry or answering Land Registry queries. Once the firm has closed, even if a solicitor in the firm still has a current practising certificate, no legal work can be done in the name of the firm. Such work can only be carried out by a solicitor with a practising certificate in a firm with professional indemnity insurance in place.

Therefore, firms should try to ensure that all such matters are finalised prior to the date of cessation of the firm. Alternatively, clients must be informed that the firm cannot finalise matters and that they should nominate another firm of solicitors to deal with the matter. In cases where the client has already paid the firm to complete the work, the client may insist that the firm pays the relevant fees to the client’s new solicitor to complete the work outstanding at the date of cessation of the firm.

The Land Registry holds a current list of all live firms, with updates provided weekly by the Society. In cases where an application is made by a ceased firm, or the ceased firm submits a response to a query raised by the Land Registry on an application, even if the firm was open when the application was first made, the partner/principal of the ceased firm will be written to by the Land Registry and informed that the application will be frozen until such time as the client nominates a new firm of solicitors to deal with the matter. The Society will also be informed by the Land Registry in cases where a ceased firm, or a solicitor without a practising certificate, attempts to lodge an application with or answer queries from the Land Registry.

It should also be noted that only a solicitor with a practising certificate in a firm with professional indemnity insurance in place may certify title as a practising solicitor. Solicitors without a practising certificate and solicitors from ceased practices may not certify title as a practising solicitor, even if the certificate is, as usual, backdated to the date of closing of the sale, when the firm was open and the solicitor had a practising certificate.

It should be noted that:

• Section 56(1) of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994 provides that no solicitor shall practise as a solicitor unless a practising certificate in respect of him or her is in force.
• Section 56(2) of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1994 provides that a solicitor shall be deemed to practise as a solicitor if he or she engages in the provision of legal services, whether as a sole practitioner or as a partner in a solicitor’s practice, or as an employee of any solicitor or of any person or body, or as a solicitor in the full-time service of the State.
• ‘Legal services’ are services of a legal or financial nature provided by a solicitor arising from that solicitor’s practice as a solicitor.
• It is professional misconduct and a criminal offence for a solicitor who does not hold a practising certificate to act as a solicitor.

John Elliot
Registrar of Solicitors and Director of Regulation