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Jessica Clay
Jessica is a Senior Associate with over a decade’s worth of experience specialising in legal services regulation. Jessica’s work in this sector focuses on advising her clients in relation to complying with regulatory obligations, better understanding the importance of legal ethics within regulation, regulatory investigations and public law matters, including reviewing regulatory frameworks and decision making processes. Outside the legal services sector, she acts both for and against the regulators of the accountancy and actuarial professionals.
Having worked for a legal services regulator and provided advice to those handling complex disciplinary cases, Jessica understands first-hand, how allegations are considered and on what basis decisions are made. This provides a unique and valuable insight to her clients, enabling her to better understand the full range of regulatory outcomes and the ones more likely to be imposed, as well as thinking of other creative solutions leading to the resolution of cases. Jessica is known for having an eagle eye for detail but never losing sight of the bigger picture for her clients. She will consider all the options available and will seek to obtain the best outcomes she can for clients, at the earliest possible opportunity.
Jessica’s clients in the legal sector include those who are subject to regulatory investigations and any subsequent disciplinary proceedings, as well as those seeking regulatory advice about their regulatory and ethical obligations, changes to business structures, authorisation processes, and those facing public law challenges.
Jessica regularly advises regulators in the legal sector and beyond, where she provides policy and strategy, regulatory reform, governance and litigation advice and advises on extensive drafting projects, as well as delivering training on focus areas.
Jessica’s early legal regulatory career was spent in private practice, before moving in-house, first at the Legal Services Board (LSB) and then at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Jessica joined Kingsley Napley in July 2019. Having worked both in private practice and in-house, gaining experience both in prosecution and defence, ensures that she is ideally placed to advise regulated professionals on how a regulator may view alleged conduct, what action may follow, and how best to defend any allegation.
Recent work
- Advising a regulator on a review of its disciplinary scheme
- Advising law firms and individual solicitors in relation to their regulatory and ethical obligations, including in relation to the SRA’s Standards and Regulations and the underpinning Enforcement Strategy
- Advising SRA regulated individuals and firms in relation to SRA investigations
- Drafting regulations for a regulator
- Advising regulators on governance issues, their statutory powers and other ad-hoc issues arising
Professional societies and memberships
- Law Society of England and Wales
- Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL)
- Association of Partnership Practitioners (APP)
Articles and publications
- Are you getting complacent with compliance? - Law Society publication for small firms October 2020
- Prepare for Regulator Scrutiny of Law Firm Culture on Diversity - August 2020 Law.Com publication.
- The role of managers in promoting a good working culture within law firms (15 April 2020); The importance of wellbeing in promoting a good law firm culture (29 April 2020); The importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in promoting a good working culture - ARK Blog series
- Fixed penalty notice for breach of lockdown: notifying the SRA, 27 April 2020, Law Society Gazette
- How to maintain regulatory obligations while working remotely, 20 March 2020, article written for Legal Week
- The UK's New Regulatory Code Where Firms Carry the Can - November 2019 Law.Com publication
- SRA reveal regulatory shake up, 28 November 2019, quoted by NatWest
- Firms will need to put legal ethics at the heart of their business, 21 November 2019, article written for the Times
- Responsible for scoping the firm’s Standards and Regulations (StaRs) blog series (references to which featured in The Times) and co-authored the following blogs in that series:
- Reach for the StaRs – 22 October 2019
- Understanding the new SRA Principles and Codes: the long read – 24 October 2019
- Reporting Concerns: understanding your obligations – 5 November 2019
- Free and Easy?, October 2019, The Law Society,
- What will the StaRs mean for you?, 15 October 2019, ARK
An effective team player who role models the combination of intellectual rigour and speed of delivery which clients need in this area of law”
A client
Has expert level knowledge in legal regulation and wider public law experience”
A client
I always knew if I instructed Jessica to do something, it would be done thoroughly, to a high standard and with thought”
A client
