The roles of COLP (Compliance Officer for Legal Practice) and COFA (Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration) are often held by the same individual for many years. These role holders are often very busy fee earners or managers who are juggling their work with their compliance role.
And very often they are senior individuals who hold the role by virtue of their position in the firm, but with no real desire to do so. The SRA has recently highlighted concerns about this, noting that concentrating key compliance roles in a single individual can severely undermine effective compliance and risk management.
The responsibilities of ensuring compliance with SRA requirements, managing firm-wide risks, and reporting serious breaches are a heavy burden, not to mention time consuming. For a single person, managing this alone can lead to fatigue, a sense of isolation, and possible burnout.
The compliance paradox
Continuity is often mistaken for stability. But it might actually be a weakness. Many firms fall into the trap of appointing the forever COLP – the individual who holds the role for a very long time, who gets complacent, runs out of enthusiasm, is a burnout risk, and potentially becomes a bottleneck that centralises knowledge and invites an over-reliance on a single point of failure. This is an operational, risk management and HR issue hiding in plain sight.
The regulatory foundation
The SRA Code of Conduct for Firms set out clear guidelines for the responsibilities for the COLP and COFA in paragraphs 9.1 and 9.2.
Effective governance is usually associated with a separation of power, a lesson punctuated by the collapse of Axiom Ince, where a single person held all the main roles. From the SRA’s point of view, a lack of internal checks and balances can lead to catastrophic firm failure (although the regulator appears to have pulled back from mandating separate COLPs and COFAs…for the time being).
Our recent JBL webinar focussed on the SRA Compliance Officer Thematic Review. During the course of the session, the topic of having a deputy compliance officer was discussed. This is not a new concept for us (we have discussed the advantages of this previously and seen it in action in a number of the firms we work with), but it did strike a chord with some in the audience who had not considered it before.
The advantages of appointing a deputy COLP / COFA
It is important to note at the outset that this is not a ‘formal’ role recognised by the SRA. Having a deputy is not mandatory, and it does not require a notification to the regulator if someone takes the role on. But it can demonstrate many positive things in terms of your attitude to risk and compliance.
“The weight of responsibility becomes easier to bear when that responsibility is shared.”
As many COLPs and COFAs tell us, being the sole person with accountability for a firm’s compliance can feel isolating and overwhelming. Particularly if there’s no clear endpoint. We regularly hear from compliance officers who feel like they’re “herding cats” trying to get others in the firm to value the importance of the processes in place to ensure compliance.
Perhaps it’s time to move away from the isolated Compliance Officer mindset, and embrace a more sustainable, resilient model.
Appointing deputies can have a very positive impact on a firm’s compliance culture, as well as the safeguarding of the business. The key advantages include:
- Greater resilience and business continuity: relying on one long-term COLP or COFA creates a critical vulnerability for the firm. Having a deputy builds operational depth and knowledge within your firm and ensures continuity if the primary compliance officer unexpectedly steps down, falls ill, or takes leave. A shared ownership of regulatory responsibilities is fostered.
- Enhanced mental wellbeing: the weight of compliance responsibilities can be overwhelming, with Compliance Officers often feeling like they are banging their head against a wall to get staff to comply. With many believing that compliance is someone else’s problem, sharing this burden with a deputy helps reduce stress and makes the role significantly more sustainable. It also provides a sounding board – someone to bounce ideas around with and discuss the rationale for decisions being made.
- Fresh perspectives and reduced complacency: a deputy brings a fresh pair of eyes to the firm’s compliance framework. They can help spot risks, inefficiencies, or system vulnerabilities that a long-serving compliance officer might have overlooked due to routine and familiarity. Or indeed, just being too busy!
- Professional development and succession planning: serving as a deputy COLP or COFA is a powerful professional development opportunity. It allows aspiring leaders and future partners to build a deep, practical understanding of regulatory frameworks, how risk is managed on a day-to-day level within a firm, and firm governance before they are expected to take on the primary role.
- A broader culture of compliance: when more individuals step into compliance roles and assume responsibility, regulatory understanding becomes deeply embedded across the firm. A deputy who has ‘walked in those shoes’ can help foster greater empathy, cooperation, and a sense of shared ownership for compliance requirements (and initiatives) throughout the wider team.
Surely such a structure a win win?
