1. International practice and regulation
1.1 International practice
(a) Sheppard Mullin is an international legal practice carried on by Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP (a registered limited liability partnership organised and existing under the laws of the State of California, United States of America, whose principal office is at 350 South Grand Avenue, 40th Floor, California CA 90071, United States of America) in the United States, with offices across the United States and worldwide (“SMRH US”), and its affiliated practice, Sheppard Mullin (UK) LLP, a registered limited liability partnership organised and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware, United States of America, principal office is located at 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL, United Kingdom (“SMRH UK”).
(b) SMRH US and SMRH UK work together as a closely integrated international network but are separately constituted and separately regulated legal entities which provide legal and other client services in accordance with the relevant laws of the jurisdictions in which they respectively operate.
1.2 Regulation
(a) SMRH UK is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) with SRA ID 8005701 and with practising address at 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL, United Kingdom.
(b) The standards and requirements SMRH UK is expected to achieve and observe are set out in the SRA Standards and Regulations. To find out more, please go to https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/.
2. Professional Indemnity Insurance
2.1 SMRH carries comprehensive professional liability insurance.
2.2 The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 require us to notify details of the insurers who provide SMRH UK, its partners, staff and connected entities with professional liability insurance cover that SMRH UK, as a firm of solicitors practising in England and Wales, is obliged to hold by the SRA.
2.3 SMRH UK's qualifying insurers are the Hamilton Syndicate whose address is 8 Fenchurch Place, London EC3M 4AJ, United Kingdom. This insurance covers SMRH UK's practice in England and Wales and extends to acts or omissions wherever in the world they may occur.
3. The SRA Compensation Fund
The SRA Compensation Fund Rules 2021 provide for the SRA to establish and maintain a fund for compensation claims. Grants are made from the fund at the discretion of the SRA.
4. Data Protection
SMRH UK is a data controller registered with the UK Information Commissioner (registration number C1458462). We shall process any personal information you provide to us or which we obtain in connection with providing our services to you in accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018, other relevant legislation and our data protection registration.
5. VAT
SMRH UK is registered for VAT purposes in the United Kingdom with VAT no. 240639222
6. Modern Slavery Statement
6.1 This statement is issued on behalf of SMRH UK pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. This statement covers the financial year 2024.
6.2 The Firm is committed to promoting and enforcing ethical business practices and respecting human rights. We unequivocally condemn modern slavery and human trafficking (“modern slavery”) in all forms.
6.3 Because law firms and lawyers are heavily regulated, the risk of the Firm’s internal operations being exposed to modern slavery are extremely low. We also engage a range of suppliers to enable our lawyers to provide services to our clients and to support the running of the firm. Most of our suppliers comprise professional service providers including legal counsel, banks, and tax/accounting services. A relatively smaller proportion of our supply chain consists of those required to support our internal operations, including IT services, recruitment, travel and facilities management (e.g. maintenance, catering and cleaning services). We generally foster long-term relationships with our internal suppliers, which we believe involves less risk as we have greater knowledge of their operations and policies. On this basis, we have assessed our overall risk of exposure to modern slavery in our supply chain to be low.
6.4 The Firm has taken the following steps to combat modern slavery. The Firm has adopted an Anti-Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy which sets out methods for identifying areas of risk internally and areas of risk in the Firm’s supply chain, as well as methods for managing those risks, including supplier due diligence. The Firm has also implemented training for its recruiting team, its office administrators, and the team that manages vendor contracts.
7. Complaints
7.1 If you have a complaint or any other issue concerning SMRH US or SMRH UK, you should immediately raise this with the person dealing with your matter.
7.2 If your correspondence does not resolve matters to your satisfaction, you have the right to make a formal complaint in accordance with our complaints procedure which is available on request.
7.3 If we are unable to resolve the complaint with you, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about poor service from lawyers.
7.4 Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
(a) no more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
(b) no more than one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint;
and
(c) within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint.
7.5 If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them:
Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call 0300 555 0333 between 10am to 4pm.
NGT Lite:
18001 0300 555 0333
Minicom text phone:
18002 0300 555 0333
Email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ