Solicitor regulator criticised over firm's collapse

An independent review has criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for missed opportunities to better identify issues at a law firm before its collapse.

Sheffield-based PM Law closed suddenly on 2 February, leaving hundreds of employees out of work and many clients stranded mid-transaction.

Jenner & Block LLP, which conducted the review, said the SRA had "held more information about the PM Law Group than was drawn together into a single, coherent picture".

Anna Bradley, chair of the SRA Board, said the report "makes for difficult reading", adding: " We are particularly sorry for the impact this has had on former clients of the firm and accept we should have done better by them."

Bradley added: "The Board is disappointed we missed opportunities to act on PM Law sooner, given the work we have already done to change the way we regulate."

Bradley said progress had since been made, but admitted: "We have much further to go."

According to Jenner & Block, there had been an "absence of rigour" in a 2025 investigation into PM Law by the SRA.

There was a "failure of aggregation" in terms of bringing together everything known about the doomed firm, the review concluded.

The SRA also lacked the infrastructure - "technological, procedural and in terms of trained expertise" - for "effective regulatory action", it added.

The PM Law group, which entered voluntary liquidation on 3 March, was made up of 11 companies, 25 offices and more than 30 trading names spread across Yorkshire, Cumbria, Berkshire, Derbyshire and London.

The firm is now under investigation by the SRA over what it said was a "sophisticated suspected fraud involving the improper removal and misuse of around £39.5m of client funds".

The SRA said it had dealt with more than 26,000 inquiries relating to PM Law since the firm's closure, with £6.9m paid to clients with money held by the company and a further £15m paid out from its Compensation Fund. 

Mark Evans, the president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said the independent review "paints a bleak picture of the regulator missing several opportunities to act sooner on the risks PM Law presented".

"Once again, the profession as a whole – solicitors and law firms – has had to shoulder the financial consequences through a substantial increase in contributions to the Compensation Fund," he said.

"While steps are already being taken by the SRA, meaningful reform needs to be delivered swiftly to prevent yet another failure of this scale from happening again."

The BBC has previously repeatedly contacted PM Law Ltd for comment but has so far received no response.

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