The Growth Of Outcomes-Based Regulation? Transatlantic Developments

In the course of our work advising on and defending professional liability disputes and regulatory matters for law firms across the globe, we are noticing an ever-increasing degree of similarity between the issues which firms are facing, wherever they may be headquartered or operating. Internationally, we are seeing firms troubled by the same common causes of claims, regulatory concerns and risk management issues.

An interesting recent illustration of the way in which regulators, too, are taking an interest in developments in other jurisdictions, is the adoption by the American Bar Association ("ABA") of a set of overarching regulatory objectives for lawyers - the ABA Model Regulatory Objectives - which closely resemble the Principles in the Code of Conduct of the Solicitors Regulation Authority of England and Wales ("SRA").