Solicitor - Risk and Compliance - Edinburgh or Glasgow

Anderson Strathern is a modern, innovative law firm. We’re proud of our history but firmly focussed on an exciting future, one that embraces technology and smarter ways of working. We’re independent, and proudly so.

As Investors in People and Investors in Young People Gold award holders, we will provide you with full supervision and support

Our team

Anderson Strathern’s Risk & Compliance Team plays a vital role in supporting the firm’s strategic, regulatory, and operational obligations. We provide clear, commercially aligned guidance across professional practice, enterprise risk, and economic crime compliance. Our approach is proactive, practical, and focused on enabling delivery, not just advising on it.

The role will involve

• Supporting the firm, departments, and individual solicitors in complying with professional and regulatory obligations of the Law Society of Scotland (LSS) and Solicitors Regulator Authority (SRA)
• Ensuring that regulatory duties are translated into practical, usable controls that solicitors can apply day-to-day—without creating unnecessary friction—so that compliance becomes an enabler of safe, consistent service delivery and strong client outcomes
• Responsibility of being aware of the This is a proactive role, meaning that it is the role holder’s responsibility to be aware of the professional regulation landscape through horizon scanning, and engaging with regulatory bodies and the compliance community
• Delivery of a commercial Risk & Compliance service; help deliver and grow a risk and compliance commercial service as part of an “all corporate risk” legal offering. The role holder will support the Head of R&C in designing a compliance risk service, and working with other departments to develop, promote and grow the “all corporate risk” offering
• Contributing to service design, sales, and commercial strategy, helping the firm develop scalable products and advisory services that meet market need and strengthen client relationships—consistent with the firm’s emphasis on business development, client care and commercial awareness

As a Solicitor, you will be expected to

• Provide professional regulation & compliance advice
  • Provide accessible, timely, pragmatic advice to partners and solicitors on LSS and (where relevant) SRA conduct/professional practice obligations—focusing on “what good looks like” in real scenarios and how teams should evidence compliance.
  • Translate regulatory requirements into clear and maintained guidance notes, decision tools, templates, checklists, and intranet resources.
  • Ensure that central guidance aligns to firm processes across matter lifecycle (intake/onboarding, file management, supervision, client care, complaints, undertakings, conflicts, referral arrangements, and other professional obligations).
  • Providing guidance and practical support on conflict risk, confidentiality, undertakings, and professional conduct queries – ensuring decisions are documented and sound.

• Have clear standards and documented controls
  • Ensuring the firm maintains documented policies, controls and procedures that are understandable, current and useable. You will work alongside the enterprise risk senior manager who is accountable for the general management and maintenance of our policy framework.
  • Ensuring teams know where the “source of truth” sits and that materials remain coherent across departments.

• Demonstrate effective supervision and quality assurance
  • Supporting a culture where supervision expectations are understood, applied consistently and evidenced – particularly in higher -risk work types, novel issues, and when there may be strain on capacity during busy spells.
  • Helping departments embed proportionate file and peer reviews so that issues are identified early, learning is captured, and repeat issues are reduced.
  • Helping fee earners and teams maintain consistent standards of client communication, expectation management, and service quality.
  • Supporting the client relations partner with complaint investigations, root cause analysis, and remediation to reduce repeat issues.

• Illustrate regulatory reporting and engagement
  • Supporting regulatory notifications, responses, and information requests (LSS/SRA as applicable).
  • Responsible for professional practice regulatory returns, including incidental financial business, lobbying etc with support from the Head of R&C.
  • Helping ensure the firm is “inspection-ready”: clear evidence trails, easy retrieval of policies/records, and consistent implementation.

• Display training and awareness
  • Designing and delivering targeted training and briefings for departments on key professional practice topics, supported by short, practical tools and examples.
  • Working with HR/L&D and department managers to ensure training is effective, embedded and tracked.
  • Identifying compliance pain points and redesigning processes to reduce friction while maintaining control effectiveness—working in partnership with central services teams.

• Risk and Compliance commercial service (client-facing)
  • Support the delivery and growth of the firm’s risk and compliance offering as part of an integrated “all risk” legal service.
  • Help define target clients segments and market messaging for risk/ compliance services, aligning to firm strategy and capabilities.
  • Build internal referral pathways so fee earners across the firm understand when to introduce the “all risk” offering to clients.
  • Deliver client-facing advice and support on risk and compliance topics within scope—working collaboratively with other risk specialists (e.g., data protection, health & safety, regulatory/professional discipline specialists).
  • Help develop repeatable service lines (diagnostics, audits, assurance reviews, retained advisory, training packages, policy suites, compliance health checks), including scoping, pricing inputs, deliverables, and templates.
  • Contribute to ensuring service quality: clear client outputs, strong project discipline, and consistent delivery standards.
  • Support partners and BD colleagues with pipeline development, proposal/tender input, client conversations, and cross- selling – consistent with solicitors expectations around business development and commercial contribution.
  • Contribute to building a strong external profile via articles, seminars, training and professional engagement (where appropriate), helping position Anderson Strathern as a pragmatic provider of risk- led legal services.

About you

• Qualified solicitor with minimum 5 years PQE.
• Demonstrable experience in regulatory compliance / professional practice in a law firm or regulated professional services environment.
• Strong working knowledge of professional conduct concepts (ethics, conflicts, confidentiality, undertakings, client care, complaints, supervision expectations).
• Experience of working with operational stakeholders (Finance/Cashroom/HR/Operations) to implement controls and process improvements.
• Proven ability to communicate complex requirements in a practical, non-technical way.
• Experience contributing to sales activity: proposals, pitches, tenders, or conversion conversations.

What you will get in return

• Opportunity to work with a market leading team on complex and high-profile transactions
• On-going career development and progression opportunities
• Supportive and collaborative team culture and work environment
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements to support work life balance
• A competitive salary and benefits package

Anderson Strathern is an equal opportunities employer.  Our policy is to recruit, develop, nurture and retain a diverse workforce following the guidelines of the Equality Act 2010.