Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) chief executive Paul Philip is set to retire later this year ending an 11-year tenure dogged in recent months by controversy surrounding the regulator’s oversight of Axiom Ince ahead of its collapse.

In a statement issued yesterday the SRA said Philip would step down “towards the end of 2025 once a suitable replacement has been found”.

Philip joined the Birmingham-headquartered body that regulates solicitors in England and Wales from the General Medical Council in 2014, leading the SRA for more than 11 years.

Philip said holding the role had been a privilege, calling it “incredibly interesting, challenging and fulfilling”, adding that “there is always more you would like to do and achieve, but I am proud of the progress we have made”.

Anna Bradley, the SRA’s chair, said: “Paul has led the organisation through transformative change – including reforming our rules to get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy, introducing anti-money laundering regulatory arrangements, and developing and delivering the Solicitors Qualification Exam to make sure everyone can trust that qualifying solicitors are meeting a consistent, high standard.”

Bradley, whose six-year term was recently extended to 2026 to deliver its corporate strategy, explained that in 2014 “the SRA was still deeply embedded within the governance structures of the Law Society”, with Philip subsequently assisting it to “become a more efficient and effective regulator”.

Law Society chief executive officer Ian Jeffery paid tribute to Philip’s contribution to regulation but said his exit came “at a critical time in the history of the SRA”, which has come under heavy scrutiny recently following the collapse of Axiom Ince and SSB Law.

Jeffery said: “The hard lessons for the SRA from the Axiom and SSB collapses will require a period of deep reflection and significant organisational change. The handover to a new leader will be crucial to how the SRA moves forwards.”

Last year, an independent report by Northern Ireland law firm Carson McDowell criticised the SRA’s oversight of Axiom Ince ahead of its collapse in 2023 amid allegations of fraud over £66m of missing client funds.

It was commissioned by oversight regulator the Legal Services Board (LSB), which instituted unprecedented enforcement action last October after ruling that the regulator “did not take all the steps it could or should have taken”.

Subsequently, the SRA increased the mandatory levy paid by solicitors and firms to finance the Compensation Fund – which is designed to compensate affected clients – a move that was poorly received by the profession.

A further LSB-commissioned report by Carson McDowell is pending on the collapse of Sheffield-based claims firm SSB Law in January 2024 with debts of £200m due to failed consumer claims over cavity wall insulation undertaken on a contingency fee basis.  

The SRA had also been criticised for unsuccessful professional disciplinary proceedings against Leigh Day regarding alleged misconduct arising from the Iraq War, leading it to pay the firm over £1m in costs after the High Court upheld the Solicitor Disciplinary Tribunal’s decision to exonerate the firm in 2019.

The following year, proceedings undertaken against former Freshfields partner Ryan Beckwith were also reversed after a High Court judgment overturned an SDT determination that a consensual sexual encounter with a junior colleague broke the SRA’s Code of Conduct.

News of Philip’s plans to step down follows the departure of SRA deputy chief executive and general counsel Juliet Oliver in January to join Stratify, Kingsley Napley’s strategic regulatory advice service, while Oliver Sweeney, the SRA’s former head of enforcement, joined Browne Jacobsen in November.