AI Governance & COLP Support.
Practical controls, workflow audits, and operational supervision frameworks designed specifically for Managing Partners and COLPs in UK conveyancing firms.
Supervised Legal Workflows
Adopting generative AI within a regulated environment is not an IT challenge; it is a fundamental supervisory requirement. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) holds partners and COLPs personally accountable for unmonitored tech outcomes. If your software hallucinates or leaks unredacted records, you are responsible.
We help conveyancing firms align their tools with core SRA expectations. We design robust supervision layers that ensure qualified human fee-earners review and sign off all AI-generated title summaries and client correspondence before dispatch, fiercely protecting legal professional privilege.
Key SRA Governance Areas
- Client Confidentiality (Code of Conduct, para 6.3): Implementing firewall restrictions to block public consumer AI tools (shadow IT) and securing closed-loop Data Processing Agreements (DPAs).
- Active Supervision (Code of Conduct, para 3.5): Restricting AI usage to deterministically managed, assistive contexts with mandatory human sign-off on all title reviews.
- Active Disclosure Readiness: Constructing the documented governance evidence file your PI broker will ask for at renewal.
Property Transaction Guardrails
The Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) requires absolute transparency regarding client data. Because property transactions involve high volumes of personally identifiable information (PII), unmanaged AI data streams expose your firm to severe GDPR breaches and reputational risk with lending panel managers.
We work with CLC-regulated firms to implement secure, onshore data routing. We ensure that any automated document triaging or client intake parsing operates exclusively on UK-hosted, GDPR-compliant infrastructure, backed by contractual zero data retention (ZDR) terms for foundational model training.
The FCA Is Becoming Your AML Supervisor
HM Treasury's June 2026 consultation response confirms it: the Financial Conduct Authority will become the AML/CTF supervisor for legal services firms, replacing the current professional-body-led model for that specific purpose. This is a multi-year transition, not an overnight switch, but the direction is set.
Two changes matter directly to your MLRO: a new FCA-maintained public register of supervised firms, and Regulation 58 "fit and proper" testing — currently applied only to trust and company service providers — extended to reach Beneficial Owners, Officers and Managers, MLROs included, going beyond today's criminal-record check alone.
Why This Matters Now, Not Later
If your MLRO's AML screening decisions — including any AI-assisted ones — aren't separately logged and signed off today, that's a gap worth closing before the FCA register exists, not after. We build a named, dedicated MLRO sign-off track into every installation, logged apart from general fee-earner supervision.
Immediate Governance Checklist
Whether your practice is SRA or CLC-regulated, you should implement these four control measures immediately to prevent regulatory exposure:
- Run an Anonymous AI Audit: Survey fee-earners to discover what unapproved public AI tools are being used on corporate networks. You cannot govern what you cannot see.
- Publish a Written AI Policy: Standardise clear operational rules forbidding the input of client personal data (PII) into public LLMs.
- Coordinate with Your Broker: Engage your PI broker before renewal to present your documented supervision controls, defending your indemnity risk profile.
- Enforce Case Management (CMS) Boundaries: Ensure that any AI add-ons within your CMS (Leap, Hoowla, Osprey) conform to UK GDPR data sovereignty rules.