Newsletter – June 2024

From the CEO

Are you taking cybercrime seriously? Recent cybersecurity attacks at firms where Costs Lawyers work highlight the need for everyone in the profession to remain vigilant to protect their clients, staff and wider business.

Remote working has made many businesses even more dependent on IT systems, and this has led to ever more sophisticated cyber attacks. Legal services firms handle sensitive and valuable information which can make them attractive targets for cyber criminals, as highlighted in the National Cyber Security Centre’s latest Threat Report for the UK Legal Sector. The report stressed the importance of people in management and governance positions understanding the issues and improving cyber security practices, as well as providing extensive advice and guidance on how to do so.

The CLSB’s 2024 Annual Risk Outlook highlights the ever-growing risk around cyber threats, recommending that costs law firms have external cyber assurance certification in place and that all Costs Lawyers consider whether their professional indemnity insurance extends to cyber-related risks.

The National Cyber Security Centre provides a range of resources and training to help individuals and organisations mitigate the risks, and we encourage you to prioritise reviewing these as part of your cybersecurity strategy. It will also count toward your annual CPD, if the activities are relevant to your CPD objectives.

Given that lawyers hold sensitive, confidential and potentially valuable data, everyone in the legal sector – from large firms to sole practitioners – are at risk of attempts to steal data, extort ransom demands and generally disrupt commerce. We all need to make sure that our part of the legal sector understands and protects against vulnerabilities as much as we can.

Kate Wellington

CEO

Regulatory News

Ethics Hub for Costs Lawyers launched today

Today we launched a new Ethics Hub to help you navigate common ethical challenges in your professional life and to help you engage with and reflect on what it means to uphold high professional standards. The Ethics Hub brings the new Costs Lawyer Code of Conduct – which was introduced in April – to life in a practical way. It contains ethical scenarios based on real-world enquiries and complaints received by the CLSB, as well as other new resources relating to professional ethics and conduct.

A new dedicated webpage in the Ethics Hub also explores the duty of all regulated lawyers to uphold the rule of law. Read more about what it means to uphold the rule of law in your day-to-day practice in this newsletter’s Spotlight blog.

Remember to use the CLSB Client Survey at the end of each matter

We want everyone who instructs a Costs Lawyer to have a good experience. Our Client Survey allows clients to provide feedback directly to the CLSB, so we can improve our understanding of clients’ experiences of using a Costs Lawyer. Please note that the survey doesn’t ask the client to give your name – it seeks generic feedback, not feedback on any particular lawyer.

On conclusion of instructions please send all your clients this link and encourage them to complete the short online survey, assisting us in improving standards across the board. You might like to tell clients that their participation will help ensure people experience a good outcome when they need a Costs Lawyer, and that it will only take a few minutes to complete.

New guidance on economic crime

We recently published a new Guidance Note on economic crime, replacing our previous guidance on anti-money laundering.

The new guidance note looks beyond anti-money laundering to cover other types of economic crime, such as terrorism financing, proliferation financing and breaching economic sanctions. You should be aware of your obligations to detect and prevent economic crime and understand how to protect yourself and your business against inadvertent involvement.

Spotlight on… professional ethics and the rule of law

In this newsletter, alongside the launch of our new Ethics Hub, we turn our spotlight on what it means for lawyers to uphold the rule of law. Steven Vaughan (Professor of Law and Professional Ethics, UCL), Richard Moorhead (Professor of Law and Professional Ethics, University of Exeter), and Kenta Tsuda (PhD student, UCL), the authors of the 2023 report for the LSB on what it means for lawyers to uphold the rule of law, share their expertise in translating the rule of law into everyday practice.

“The challenges for Costs Lawyers are worth some further reflection. Some of these are about the institutions many of them work in (in an SRA regulated firm, for example) where we know well, through insights from behavioural ethics, how institutions (like law firms and other employers) can shape how people see ‘doing the right thing’ and so on. How easy is it to speak up in rigid hierarchies? Other challenges are, of course, about the specialist role of Costs Lawyers – some distance from the ‘actual’ client, with solicitors (and others) acting as professional intermediaries (or intermediary ‘clients’): feeding facts; answering questions; working as gatekeepers. A claim that you were ‘only acting on instructions’ is not going to wash.”

Read More

Up and Coming…

Expect more from us shortly on:

  • Consultation on the 2025 practising fee
  • New guidance on giving professional undertakings
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