Manchester
Compliance and regulatory advisers to law firms.
We have spent twenty years discreetly advising law firms, including many of the leading firms in the country, on regulation and compliance. We act for firms, and for the solicitors within them, in the following matters.
What we do
High level compliance advice
Advice for COLPs, COFAs, MLROs etc. on accounts rules issues, day to day compliance, authorisation and approval applications, money laundering, and all aspects of the SRA’s regulatory arrangements.
Disciplinary and misconduct matters
Full representation, and technical and strategic advice to persons under investigation, from desk-based thematic reviews to unannounced onsite forensic inspections – and everything in-between.
Anti-money laundering compliance
Advice, policies and practical support on the MLRs, POCA and LSAG guidance, grounded in our substantial experience of how in-scope work actually runs.
“Bet the firm” work
We provide support to firms who are launching new departments, selling up, buying a firm, merging, restructuring, refinancing (including PE legal sector acquisitions), suffering an insolvency event, closing down, or innovating in novel ways.
Retained compliance support
Acting as an outsourced compliance function for firms that want senior judgment on call rather than another employee.
Lexcel and CQS accreditation
Support in obtaining and maintaining accreditation.
Data protection
UK GDPR advice for law firms, where confidentiality, privilege and data rights collide.
Complaints
Assistance with serious complaints. LeO representation. Strategy development for volume firms suffering an influx of AI-generated complaints.
Who we are
Three advisers, more than fifty years between them
Complex Legal is led by three advisers with, between them, more than fifty years advising law firms on their regulatory obligations.
The practice is older than the company: it took shape at Pannone LLP in 2006, spun out in 2009 as Legal Business Support Ltd, where Anthony and David joined, and has been carried by Complex Legal Ltd since 2016. We have been doing this work since before the Solicitors Regulation Authority, or the Legal Ombudsman, existed.
Bet the firm work, SRA investigations and enforcement, serious AML issues.
Data protection. Complaints. MLR audits. SRA authorisation applications. Compliance support.
Lexcel & CQS. AML. Compliance support.
The Source of Funds Company
Our source of funds service
The Source of Funds Company, which carries out source of funds checks for the house-buying clients of law firms, is a trading name of Complex Legal Ltd. Its website is at sourceoffundscompany.com.
Working with us
Instructions are taken on selectively
We have never advertised, and new instructions are taken on selectively; most of our work comes to us by recommendation, from firms we have acted for over many years.
If you would like to discuss a matter, email enquiries@complexlegal.com or telephone 0161 258 7498.