About

What is Find a Solicitor?

Find a Solicitor is a free service for anyone looking for information about organisations or people providing legal services in England and Wales that are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

Find a Solicitor is owned by the Law Society of England and Wales.

The SRA is the independent, regulatory arm of the Law Society. It makes and enforces the rules which solicitors and organisations regulated by the SRA must follow.

The SRA works in the public interest to uphold the regulatory objectives in the Legal Services Act.

Find a Solicitor aims to include all SRA-regulated law firms, individuals and organisations that contain regulated individuals who choose to be listed.

It also lists non-solicitors who are members of the Law Society's accreditations.

For example, the Family Mediation Accreditation is open to qualified mediators who may not be regulated by the SRA. They must still meet all entry criteria before being awarded the Law Society's accreditation.

Find a Solicitor does not contain details of all solicitors.

In particular, it does not contain details of solicitors who choose not to be listed, and some solicitors without practising certificates.

To inspect the official register, you should contact:
The Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN

You can call the SRA on 0370 606 2555 (UK) or +44 (0)121 329 6800 (international callers).

Read more about using Advanced search to find Law Society accreditations in the quick reference guide on our help page.

Learn more about the SRA's guidelines for consumers using law firms.

What information is in Find a Solicitor and where is it from?

Find a Solicitor aims to include all SRA-regulated law firms, individuals (people) and the organisations that contain regulated individuals who choose to be listed.

Individuals (people) contained in Find a Solicitor should belong to one of the following categories:

• Solicitors who are on the roll and/or have a practising certificate (PC)
• Solicitor equivalents: exempt European lawyer (EEL), registered European lawyer (REL) or registered foreign lawyer (RFL)
• Non-solicitors who are members of a Law Society accreditation scheme
• SRA approved manager roles, compliance officers for legal practice (COLP) or compliance officers for finance and administration (COFA)

Individuals who are part of an SRA-regulated organisation, but do not fall into one of these four categories are not displayed on Find a Solicitor.

An SRA-approved manager (formerly referred to as 'regulated principal') is an individual who is regulated and approved by the SRA as being accountable to their organisation.

An organisation can also be an SRA-approved manager. This indicates they are regulated by the SRA and are part of the same corporate structure with a position of partner, member or director.

Below is an example of how these are displayed on a profile page under 'People, offices and structure' section.

Who is Find a Solicitor for?

Find a Solicitor is for anyone looking for information about organisations or people providing legal services in England and Wales that are regulated by the SRA.

The website is used every day by thousands of different people, including members of the public, solicitors and other lawyers, banks, mortgage lenders and estate agents.

The quick search is specifically designed for members of the public wishing to find someone in their area who can help with a specific legal issue.

The advanced search provides more advanced search functionality, to find a specific person or organisation by:

• name
• SRA ID, or
• primary and secondary areas of practice

You can use additional search filters to search by Law Society accreditation scheme name and accessibility options (such as disabled access to building, hearing induction loop and legal aid).