Find a Solicitor (https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/) is owned by the Law Society of England and Wales. Find a Solicitor is a free service for anyone looking for information about organisations or people providing legal services in England and Wales that are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
Find a Solicitor aims to include all SRA regulated law firms, individuals and the organisations that contain regulated individuals who choose to be listed. Additionally, it references non-solicitors who are members of the Law Society’s accreditations. For example, the Family Mediation accreditation is open to qualified mediators who may not be regulated by the SRA. They are still, however, required to satisfy all entry criteria before being granted the Law Society’s accreditation.
Find a Solicitor does not contain details of all solicitors. In particular, it does not contain details of solicitors who choose not to be listed, and some solicitors without practising certificates.
The SRA is responsible for keeping the registers of organisations and people it regulates. Find a Solicitor takes data about these organisations and people held by the SRA, which is adapted by the Law Society and additional information added, and presented through an easy-to-use search.
Find a Solicitor aims to include all SRA regulated law firms, individuals (people) and the organisations that contain regulated individuals who choose to be listed. Individuals (people) contained in Find a Solicitor should belong to one of the following categories:
- Solicitors who are on the Roll and/or have a practising certificate (PC)
- Solicitor equivalents: Exempt European Lawyer (EEL), Registered European Lawyer (REL) or Registered Foreign Lawyer (RFL)
- Non-solicitors who are members of a Law Society accreditation scheme
- SRA approved manager roles, Compliance Officers for Legal Practice (COLP) or Compliance Officers for Finance and Administration (COFA)
Individuals who are part of an SRA regulated organisation, but do not fall into one of these four categories are not displayed on Find a Solicitor.
An SRA approved Manager (formerly referred to as ‘regulated principal’) is an individual who is regulated and approved by the SRA as being accountable to their organisation.
An organisation can also be an SRA approved Manager. This indicates that they are regulated by the SRA and are part of the same corporate structure with a position of Partner, Member or Director. Below is an example of how these are displayed on a profile page under ‘People, offices and structure’ section.