Ethics and Professional Conduct (EPC): essential SQE1 knowledgeEthics and Professional Conduct pervades both FLK1 and FLK2. It is not assigned a fixed standalone percentage. In any SQE1 sitting, EPC a…
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Ethics and Professional Conduct (EPC): essential SQE1 knowledge
Ethics and Professional Conduct pervades both FLK1 and FLK2. It is not assigned a fixed standalone percentage. In any SQE1 sitting, EPC and money-laundering questions may collectively account for up to 20%, with money laundering assessed in FLK1 only. Ethical issues may also be embedded in questions primarily classified as Property, Criminal Practice, Business, Dispute Resolution, Wills or another subject. Official SQE1 blueprint
The examination usually asks what the solicitor must or should do next, rather than asking candidates simply to identify a Principle.
1. The seven SRA Principles
A solicitor must act:
In a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law and proper administration of justice
In a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the profession and authorised legal services
With independence
With honesty
With integrity
In a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion
In the best interests of each client
These should be memorised accurately.
2. Conflicts between Principles
The Principles do not always point in the same direction.
Where they conflict:
Duties protecting the public interest
Rule of law
Administration of justice
Honesty
Integrity
Independence
may override the immediate interests or wishes of an individual client.
Therefore:
“The client instructed the solicitor to do it” is never a defence to dishonest, unlawful or misleading conduct.
3. Rule of law and administration of justice
Principle 1 is engaged where conduct affects:
Courts
Tribunals
Evidence
Witnesses
Court orders
Legal process
Administration of estates
Execution of documents
Handling of client money
Access to justice
Examples of likely breach include:
Misleading the court
Concealing or destroying evidence
Helping a client evade a court order
Abusing litigation
Advancing a case without proper basis
Improperly influencing a witness
4. Public trust and confidence
Professional obligations may apply to private as well as professional conduct.
Conduct capable of undermining public trust includes:
Dishonesty
Fraud
Serious criminal offending
Misuse of client money
Sexual misconduct involving abuse of professional position
Exploitation of vulnerable clients
Serious financial impropriety
Misleading regulators
Discriminatory or abusive conduct
Improper personal financial dealings with clients
The SRA considers the connection with professional standing and public confidence, not simply whether the conduct occurred outside work.
5. Independence
A solicitor must exercise independent professional judgment.
Threats may arise from:
Client pressure
Employer pressure
Personal interests
Introducers
Lenders
Insurers
Funders
Family relationships
Commercial incentives
Targets or bonuses
Government or media pressure
The solicitor may advise and follow lawful instructions, but must not surrender professional judgment.
6. Honesty
Honesty concerns truthfulness and freedom from deception.
The modern dishonesty test asks:
What was the person’s actual knowledge or belief as to the facts?
Given those facts, was the conduct dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people?
The person does not need to appreciate that ordinary people would regard the conduct as dishonest.
Examples include:
False statements
Fabricated documents
Concealing material information
False time recording
Misleading bills
Dishonest use of client money
Backdating
Misrepresenting qualification or experience
7. Integrity
Integrity is broader than honesty and concerns adherence to the ethical standards expected of solicitors.
Conduct may lack integrity without satisfying the dishonesty test.
Examples include:
Taking unfair advantage
Reckless professional conduct
Exploiting vulnerability
Improper financial relationship with a client
Deliberately disregarding professional safeguards
Serious misuse of professional status
Facilitating conduct known to be improper
Not every mistake or negligent act constitutes lack of integrity.
8. Equality, diversity and inclusion
Solicitors must act in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion.
Candidates should understand the Equality Act 2010 concepts:
Direct discrimination
Indirect discrimination
Harassment
Victimisation
Disability discrimination
Reasonable adjustments
Protected characteristics
The obligations affect:
Client selection and service
Recruitment
Promotion
Workplace treatment
Choice of counsel or experts
Access to premises and information
Communications
Handling vulnerability
9. Discriminatory client instructions
A solicitor should not comply with a client’s discriminatory preference, such as refusing to instruct counsel because of:
Race
Sex
Religion
Disability
Sexual orientation
Other protected characteristic
The client’s preference does not override:
Equality law
Principle 6
Public trust
Professional independence
The solicitor should explain the position and refuse to implement an improper instruction.
10. Best interests of each client
Acting in a client’s best interests includes:
Competent advice
Timely service
Explaining risks
Protecting confidentiality
Avoiding conflicts
Managing costs
Following lawful instructions
Pursuing the client’s objectives
Considering vulnerability
Recommending appropriate specialist advice
It does not permit:
Misleading the court
Assisting crime
Concealing evidence
Breaching another client’s confidentiality
Ignoring a conflict
Acting without competence
11. Competence and service
Solicitors must:
Maintain competence
Keep professional knowledge current
Deliver competent and timely service
Take account of the client’s needs and circumstances
Ensure staff are competent
Supervise work effectively
Maintain suitable systems
A solicitor should:
Decline work beyond their competence, or
Obtain appropriate supervision or specialist assistance
Being newly qualified is not a defence to undertaking work without suitable support.
12. Supervision
Supervision must be effective rather than nominal.
A supervisor should ensure:
Clear allocation of work
Appropriate competence
Review of important documents
Availability for questions
Compliance with deadlines
Monitoring of client money
Proper handling of undertakings
Escalation of risk
Correction of errors
Solicitors may delegate tasks but not responsibility for proper service and supervision.
13. Identifying the client
Before acting, establish:
Who the client is
Who has authority to instruct
Client’s capacity
Beneficial owner where relevant
Whether instructions come through an intermediary
Who pays the costs
Whether a third party expects influence or information
Whether joint clients understand the arrangement
Examples requiring care include:
Company director instructing for a company
Parent instructing for an adult child
Attorney under a power
Personal representative
Litigation friend
Family member paying fees
Insurer funding litigation
The person paying is not automatically the client.
14. Client capacity and vulnerability
Candidates should recognise:
Mental capacity is decision-specific
Capacity may fluctuate
Communication difficulties do not equal incapacity
Reasonable adjustments may be required
Instructions should reflect the client’s own wishes
Undue influence or coercion must be considered
Appropriate measures may include:
Accessible explanations
Interpreter
Support person with consent
Medical assessment
Separate meeting
More time
Written confirmation
Court or deputy involvement where legally necessary
15. Scope of instructions
A solicitor should clarify:
Client’s objectives
Scope of retainer
Work excluded
Responsibility for decisions
Timescale
Costs
Need for third-party advice
Limits of competence
A solicitor may be liable or in regulatory breach for failing to deal with an obvious related issue even where the retainer is narrow, unless the limitation was properly explained and reasonable.
16. Client information
Clients should receive understandable information about:
Services
Who will conduct the matter
Supervision
Regulatory status
Costs
Likely timescale
Risks
Complaints
Funding
Material changes
Issues affecting the outcome
Information must be adapted to the client’s needs rather than presented as incomprehensible standard wording.
17. Costs information
Candidates should understand the obligation to explain:
Charging basis
Hourly or fixed rates
VAT
Disbursements
Likely overall cost
Costs already incurred
Potential changes
Opponent’s costs risk
Funding options
Consequences of ending the retainer
Estimates should be:
Realistic
Clear
Updated promptly
Distinguished from fixed fees
A solicitor should not provide an artificially low estimate to obtain instructions.
18. Complaints
Firms must have an effective complaints procedure.
Clients should be told:
How to complain
Who handles the complaint
That complaint handling is free
Relevant timescales
Right to approach the Legal Ombudsman
When the Ombudsman may be contacted
Complaints must be handled:
Promptly
Fairly
Impartially
Constructively
A complaint may also reveal a reportable regulatory breach.
19. Legal Ombudsman and SRA
Distinguish:
Issue
Principal route
Poor service, delay or excessive service-related complaint
Legal Ombudsman
Professional misconduct or regulatory breach
SRA
Serious disciplinary allegation
Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal
Negligence causing loss
Civil claim and potentially insurer
Dishonesty or failure to account
SRA and possibly Compensation Fund
One incident may engage multiple routes.
20. Confidentiality
A solicitor must keep current and former clients’ affairs confidential unless:
Client consents
Disclosure is required by law
Disclosure is permitted by law
Another narrowly recognised justification applies
Confidentiality covers:
Oral information
Documents
Electronic communications
Client identity
Fact that advice was sought
Information obtained from third parties
Former clients’ affairs
It continues after:
Matter ends
Client dies
Solicitor changes firms
21. Confidentiality versus privilege
Confidentiality
A broad professional duty covering client affairs.
Legal professional privilege
An evidential and substantive right belonging to the client.
Privilege includes:
Legal advice privilege
Litigation privilege
Information may be confidential without being privileged.
Privilege ordinarily can be waived only by the client or someone authorised to act for them.
22. Legal advice privilege
Legal advice privilege generally protects confidential communications:
Between lawyer and client
Made for the purpose of giving or receiving legal advice
Within the relevant lawyer-client relationship
It does not necessarily protect:
Communications with every employee in a corporate client
Purely commercial advice
Communications with third parties
Communications furthering crime or fraud
23. Litigation privilege
Litigation privilege generally protects confidential communications:
Between lawyer, client or third party
Created for the dominant purpose of litigation
Where adversarial litigation is in progress or reasonably contemplated
It may protect:
Witness communications
Expert materials
Investigation documents
Litigation preparation
A mere possibility of future litigation is insufficient.
24. Crime-fraud exception
Privilege does not protect communications made for the purpose of:
Committing crime
Furthering fraud
Concealing continuing criminal conduct
Abusing the lawyer-client relationship for an unlawful purpose
Advice about the consequences of completed misconduct may remain privileged. Assistance to continue or conceal it may not.
25. Duty to disclose material information to the client
A solicitor must generally make the client aware of all information material to the matter.
Exceptions include where:
Disclosure is prohibited by legal restrictions concerning national security or prevention of crime
Client gives informed written consent not to receive it
Disclosure is reasonably believed likely to cause serious physical or mental injury
Information appears in a privileged document known only through mistaken disclosure
This duty can conflict with confidentiality owed to another client.
26. Joint clients and confidential information
When acting jointly:
Information material to the joint matter is ordinarily shared between joint clients
A solicitor generally cannot agree to keep material information from one joint client
Each joint client should understand this from the outset
If one client discloses material information and insists it remain secret from the other, the solicitor may have to:
Encourage disclosure
Explain inability to continue
Cease acting for one or both clients
Preserve confidentiality when withdrawing
The solicitor cannot reveal the secret without authority merely because the joint retainer has become impossible.
27. Adverse interest and former-client information
A solicitor must not act where:
New client’s interest is adverse to a current or former client, and
The firm holds confidential information material to the new matter, and
There is a real risk of disclosure
Acting may be permissible where:
Effective measures remove any real risk, or
Current or former client gives informed consent in writing, including consent to safeguards
Possessing general professional knowledge is not the same as holding material confidential information.
28. Information barriers
An effective information barrier may require:
Physical and electronic separation
Restricted document access
Separate teams
No shared supervision
Confidentiality undertakings
Training
Monitoring
Prompt implementation
Appropriate firm structure
An informal instruction not to discuss the matter is unlikely to be enough.
The burden is on the firm to establish that there is no real risk of disclosure.
29. Own-interest conflicts
A solicitor must not act where there is an own-interest conflict or significant risk of one.
Examples include:
Solicitor has financial interest in transaction
Personal relationship with party
Advising on solicitor’s own possible negligence
Solicitor expects substantial benefit under a will
Business relationship affects advice
Personal loan from or to client
Secret commission
Pressure to protect firm’s fees
There is no general exception merely because the client consents.
30. Client conflicts
A client conflict arises where duties owed to two or more clients conflict or significantly risk conflicting.
Examples include:
Buyer and seller
Borrower and lender
Competing purchasers
Co-defendants blaming one another
Spouses with different estate-planning objectives
Company and director in an internal dispute
Multiple beneficiaries contesting an estate
The solicitor should identify whether the conflict concerns:
Entire matter
Particular aspect
Confidentiality
Negotiating position
Different objectives
31. Substantially common-interest exception
Acting for clients with a conflict or significant risk may be possible where:
They have a substantially common interest in the matter or relevant aspect
All give informed consent, given or evidenced in writing
Effective confidentiality safeguards are used where appropriate
Solicitor is satisfied it is reasonable to act for all
This exception should be applied cautiously.
A merely temporary alignment is insufficient where interests are likely to diverge materially.
32. Competing-for-the-same-objective exception
Acting may sometimes be possible where clients compete for the same objective, such as:
Competing bidders in a controlled process
Applicants competing for a defined asset
Parties seeking a limited opportunity
Conditions include:
Informed written consent
Effective safeguards
Reasonable belief that acting for all is appropriate
This is not permission to act for both sides of an ordinary dispute.
33. Informed consent
Valid informed consent requires the client to understand:
Nature of conflict
Material risks
Potential disadvantages
Available alternatives
Confidentiality arrangements
Possibility that solicitor may later cease acting
Consent should be freely given and recorded in writing where the Code requires.
A client cannot consent effectively without adequate information.
34. Buyer and seller
Acting for buyer and seller in the same conveyance normally creates a conflict or significant risk because:
Buyer seeks lowest price and strongest protection
Seller seeks highest price and limited liability
Negotiation may arise
Confidential information may be material
Only exceptional circumstances may justify acting for both, subject to the strict Code conditions.
35. Borrower and lender
A solicitor commonly acts for both borrower and institutional lender because their interests are often substantially aligned in obtaining good title and valid security.
However, conflict arises where:
Borrower conceals relevant information
Price differs from lender’s understanding
Gifted deposit is undisclosed
Occupier may have rights
Mortgage fraud is suspected
Title defect affects security
Transaction is not as represented
The solicitor must report material matters to the lender. If the borrower refuses consent, the solicitor may have to cease acting for both without revealing confidential details improperly.
36. Personal financial dealings with clients
Loans, gifts, investments and business arrangements with clients create serious own-interest risks.
A solicitor should consider:
Client vulnerability
Independent legal advice
Fairness
Full disclosure
Influence arising from professional relationship
Principle 2
Principle 5
Potential exploitation
The attached official sample materials include ethical scenarios in which a solicitor accepts a substantial client loan without advising independent legal advice. Such conduct may undermine public trust even where documented in writing.
37. Gifts under wills
Where a client proposes a significant gift to:
Solicitor
Solicitor’s family member
Solicitor’s colleague
Person connected with the firm
the client should ordinarily receive independent advice and the solicitor should avoid drafting or participating without proper safeguards.
Risks include:
Own-interest conflict
Undue influence
Lack of knowledge and approval
Public-trust concerns
Negligence
Disciplinary action
38. Duties to the court
A solicitor must not:
Mislead the court
Be complicit in another’s misleading conduct
Tamper with evidence
Seek to influence evidence improperly
Waste court time
Make assertions without proper foundation
Disobey court orders
Abuse litigation
Advance unarguable propositions without proper basis
The duty applies even where compliance disadvantages the client.
39. Correcting misleading information
If the solicitor or client has misled the court, the solicitor should:
Advise the client that the position must be corrected.
Seek authority to correct it.
Explain the consequences of refusal.
If authority is refused, cease acting where required.
Avoid revealing privileged information without lawful authority.
Withdrawal alone may not be sufficient if the solicitor’s own statement remains misleading and can lawfully be corrected.
40. Client admits guilt but pleads not guilty
A client may require the prosecution to prove its case despite admitting guilt privately.
The solicitor may:
Test prosecution evidence
Challenge admissibility
Make a no-case submission
Argue that the prosecution has not proved guilt
Advise on plea
The solicitor must not:
Advance a positive false case
Suggest another person committed the offence without proper basis
Put a fabricated account
Allow the client to give evidence known to be false
Mislead the court
41. False evidence
If a client intends to give false evidence, the solicitor should:
Advise strongly against it
Explain legal and professional consequences
Refuse to facilitate it
Consider whether continued representation is possible
Withdraw where required and permitted
Preserve confidentiality and privilege
A solicitor cannot remain silent while personally advancing evidence known to be false.
42. Witnesses
A solicitor may:
Identify and interview witnesses
Prepare a witness statement
Explain court procedure
Help a witness give clear and complete evidence
Test recollection appropriately
A solicitor must not:
Coach a witness to give a particular account
Suggest false facts
Suppress inconvenient evidence improperly
Offer improper inducements
Contact a represented opposing party improperly
Place a witness under undue pressure
Witness evidence must remain the witness’s own.
43. Documents and evidence
A solicitor must not:
Create false documents
Alter evidence
Backdate documents
Destroy disclosable material
Conceal evidence unlawfully
Advise a client to delete relevant communications
Misdescribe the source or date of a document
Where a client delivers incriminating physical evidence, complex legal and professional rules apply. The solicitor should obtain specialist advice and must not become involved in concealment or obstruction.
44. Mistaken disclosure
Where the solicitor receives a document obviously disclosed by mistake, particularly a privileged document, the solicitor should:
Stop reviewing it
Notify the sender
Avoid exploiting the mistake
Seek directions or agreement where necessary
Preserve the document appropriately
The Code expressly permits withholding from the client material contained in a privileged document known only through mistaken disclosure.
45. Litigation conduct
A solicitor must not:
Bring proceedings for an improper purpose
Make allegations without evidential foundation
Use litigation solely to harass
Take unfair advantage of an unrepresented opponent
Generate unnecessary costs
exploit an obvious procedural mistake unfairly
Issue threats unrelated to the legal claim
Mislead about consequences
Robust representation is permitted, but abuse and intimidation are not.
46. Taking unfair advantage
Examples include:
Exploiting a vulnerable or unrepresented person’s ignorance
Pressuring someone to sign without understanding
Misstating legal rights
Imposing an artificial deadline
Threatening criminal proceedings solely to secure a civil advantage
Concealing the true nature of a document
Using professional status oppressively
A solicitor may protect the client’s position firmly without acting unfairly.
47. Undertakings
An undertaking is a professional commitment on which another person is entitled to rely.
A solicitor should:
Give it only with authority
Ensure it is clear
Ensure it is capable of performance
Record it
Monitor it
Perform it within the agreed time or a reasonable time
Avoid dependence on matters outside their control unless expressly qualified
Failure may result in:
Regulatory action
Civil liability
Court enforcement in applicable circumstances
Damage to public trust
48. Ambiguous undertakings
An undertaking should identify:
Person giving it
Recipient
Required action
Relevant money or document
Conditions
Deadline
Whether personal or firm undertaking
Any qualification
Ambiguity is dangerous because undertakings are interpreted objectively and may be enforced strictly.
49. Client money
Solicitors must:
Safeguard money and assets
Comply with SRA Accounts Rules
Keep client money separate
Use money only for authorised purposes
Avoid overdrawn client ledgers
Correct breaches promptly
Supervise withdrawals
Maintain accurate records
Improper use is likely to engage:
Honesty
Integrity
Public trust
Best interests
Reporting duties
50. Client account as banking facility
A solicitor must not permit client account to be used for transactions unrelated to regulated services.
Improper examples include:
Passing investment money through the account
Paying unrelated personal expenses
Receiving funds solely to give legitimacy
Allowing a client without a bank account to use the firm’s account
Moving money with no underlying legal work
Client consent does not cure the breach.
51. Safekeeping of assets
The solicitor should protect:
Original wills
Title deeds
Client documents
Keys
Valuables
Digital records
Identity documents
Trust assets
The firm should maintain:
Accurate records
Secure storage
Access controls
Release procedures
Continuity plans
Cybersecurity safeguards
Assets should be returned promptly when there is no proper reason to retain them.