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Training new and junior staff: the compliance gap the SRA keeps finding

Writer: Ashley Barwick
Ashley Barwick
Oct 26
4 min read

When the SRA published its annual AML report on 23 October, Legal Futures reported the themes behind the fines. Among them were "inadequate training of fee-earners" and a failure to supervise more senior team members. It also reported systems that allow events to happen unchecked, such as receiving funds or moving to the next stage of a transaction before customer due diligence has been done.


I read that list as a training problem as much as a systems problem. Both depend on a person knowing what to do, and why, at the moment the file lands on their desk.


Are your training provisions adequate?
Are your training provisions adequate?

Why juniors and new starters are the pressure point


A small firm usually has one person who knows how everything should work. That person is also the busiest. A new starter picks up what they can by watching, and what they pick up is whatever the last person did.


That is fine until it is not. Nobody mentions the source of funds question because it always got asked by someone else. The client care letter goes out with the old template. A personal data question gets answered from memory.


Nobody is being careless. Nobody was shown.


What practical training covers


I offer corporate training for small and medium sized firms, including the basics of GDPR, client care and support-staff development for junior and new staff. The content is shaped around your firm, not a generic slide deck.


Here is what that can look like in practice. These are examples of the sort of thing a session might cover, and the actual scope is agreed with you beforehand.


Client care. What the client must be told at the start, and why. How to explain costs in plain English. What to do when the client is unhappy before it becomes a complaint.

GDPR basics. What counts as personal data on a file. What to do if an email goes to the wrong person. Who to tell, and how quickly.

File discipline. What a complete file looks like to someone who has never met the client. How to leave a note that explains why a decision was made.

Knowing when to stop and ask. The most useful habit in a regulated business is also the hardest for new staff: saying "I am not sure" before a step is taken, not after.


What training does not do


It does not replace supervision. The SRA's own AI warning notice, published in August, makes the point that those who supervise junior or non-authorised colleagues remain accountable for the work. Training helps a junior colleague do the job. A supervisor still has to check it.


It also does not turn a new starter into a compliance officer. The aim is that they understand what is asked of them and why, and raise their hand at the right time.


And it does not guarantee that you will pass an assessment or avoid regulatory action. It improves the odds that your people know the rules you have already written down.


What a small firm gets from it


Consistency. Everyone hears the same thing from the same person, at the same time.

Fee earner time back. Your senior people stop spending their evenings explaining the basics.

Evidence. A dated record of who was trained on what. When an assessor or supervisor asks how you make sure staff understand your procedures, you can show them.

One person, every time. You work with me directly, from the first conversation to the last session. There is no handover to someone you have not met.


On cost


My fees are on a time and materials basis, quoted individually after we have talked about your firm and what you want covered. They are exclusive of VAT. There is no published price list, because a firm taking on two trainees needs something different from a firm with a team of twelve.


Start with a conversation


If you would like to talk about training for new or junior staff, or want an independent view of where your firm's controls stand, I offer a free health check, with no obligation. Get in touch and we can arrange a time to talk it through.


The contact page is an enquiry form, so please put "free health check" in the message subject and I will pick it up straight away.


Ashley Barwick is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and a Law Society accredited Lexcel Consultant. This post is general information and does not constitute legal advice. Fraxinus Business Associates is not authorised to provide legal advice.


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