Paul Wightman
Consultant
Role and Background
A qualified barrister, Paul graduated in Law from Birmingham University and was called to the Bar in 1994.
He subsequently spent almost 20 years working for the Law Society of England and Wales, initially within the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors, then the Legal Complaints Service (LCS), and ultimately the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). As an experienced investigator and Senior Technical Adviser, Paul is also a former manager of the SRA’s Intervention team and during his time has advised on some of the most high-profile investigations undertaken by the SRA and given advice on all areas of SRA compliance including Anti-Money Laundering, Conflicts of Interest, Solicitor Accounts Rules and Code of Conduct breaches.
He has a broad knowledge and has provided technical advice to the SRA’s authorisation, statutory trust and Compensation Fund teams and acted as panel secretary to the SRA’s adjudication panel as well as on occasion giving evidence on behalf of the SRA in the High Court. Paul has also personally undertaken numerous pre-intervention visits to work with firms, often resolving issues and agreeing plans to successfully bring the firms back into compliance and avoiding the need for an intervention.
In 2018, Paul took up a role working as an adjudicator for the Financial Ombudsman and later that year returned to legal regulation when taking up a role as a Level Two Ombudsman at The Legal Ombudsman to make final decisions on the most complex complaints made against legal service providers in England and Wales. He became the technical lead on conveyancing complaints, the most commonly complained about area, and has delivered training and written guidance for the Ombudsman in this area.
He is a former Chair of the Law Society’s trade union. In his spare time Paul is an avid follower of all sports, particularly football, being an Aston Villa fan, and cricket, taking a particular interest in Warwickshire and England.
Paul is adept at undertaking audits and providing succinct reports on areas for improvement and can assist firms with advice on all aspects of SRA compliance and Anti-Money Laundering procedures as well as being a subject matter expert in relation to resolving service complaints.
Contact us
To discover more about how we can help your firm with compliance issues, please either call 01509 214 999 or send us an email.
