Financial Services Lawyers Association (FSLA)

An association for financial services lawyers, regulators, academics, judges
and policy experts to share ideas about financial services law
and regulation and to socialise with peers.

Latest News & Events

Upcoming FSLA Academy events

By | Events, Junior Lawyers | No Comments

On behalf of the Financial Services Lawyers Association (FSLA) and Brown Rudnick, we invite you to attend a FSLA Academy series of training sessions on “FCA enforcement: misconduct and lack of fitness and propriety”.

The series will provide a detailed but practical guide to the FCA’s powers to investigate and impose sanctions on individuals in relation to misconduct and lack of fitness and propriety. It will deal with issues that may be faced by firms and individuals following the identification of a potentially significant regulatory issue all the way through to an FCA decision to impose a sanction and the options then available.

The series will consist of three sessions:

  1. Misconduct and lack of fitness and propriety – the scope and meaning of the terms and the circumstances in which the FCA can take action in relation to them
  2. The pre-FCA investigation stage – how a firm should go about investigating a potentially significant regulatory issue and the consequences of that for an individual
  3. The FCA enforcement process – an overview covering the opening of an investigation through to the conclusion of any enforcement proceedings

The sessions will be led by Ian Weinstein and Chloë Kealey of Brown Rudnick’s Contentious Financial Services Team and build upon the contents of their recently published book on the subject. Ian and Chloë will be joined by a different barrister or in-house practitioner for each session.

The series is open to all but specifically targeted at practitioners with fewer than seven years dedicated contentious regulatory experience. It is therefore also suitable for those practitioners who are more than seven years PQE / call but who do not exclusively focus on contentious regulatory work.

Each session will be followed by drinks and canapés, providing an opportunity to network.

Location

The sessions will take place at Brown Rudnick’s offices (8 Clifford St, London W1S 2LQ).

Dates

  1. Tuesday 24 September – Session 1: Misconduct and lack of fitness and propriety
  2. Tuesday 15 October – Session 2: The pre-FCA investigation stage
  3. Tuesday 5 November – Session 3: The FCA enforcement process


Timings

For each session, registration will be open from 6.00pm and the session will start at 6:30pm, followed by drinks and canapés.
 
If you wish to attend one or more of the sessions, please register here. Please note that, by submitting this form, you are registering your interest in attending the FSLA Academy training sessions. This is not an acceptance or confirmation of any place.

If you have any queries or special requirements, please contact us at fslalondon@gmail.com.

The FCA in the High Court – The FSLA & 3VB Seminar 2024

By | Events | No Comments

3VB & FSLA are pleased to present a panel discussion on FCA involvement in High Court litigation, including its pursuit of restitution and other orders under FSMA, its business interruption claim in FCA v Arch [2021] UKSC 1, and the FCA as a defendant in claims for judicial review.

Chaired by Saima Hanif KC, who will be joined by panellists:

  • Lauren Rafter – Head of Department in the Enforcement and Market Oversight Division of the Financial Conduct Authority
  • Sarah McNally – Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills
  • Caroline Hunter-Yeats – Partner at Simmons & Simmons
  • Adam Temple – Barrister at 3VB

Date:   Thursday 19th September 2024
Time:   
6:00pm: Registration
6:30pm – 7:30pm: Seminar
7:30pm – 9:00pm: Drinks Reception
Venue: Lecture Theatre, Inner Temple, Crown Office Row, London, EC4Y 7HL
RSVP:
Click here to register for a virtual place
Click here to register for an in-person place

If you have any queries or special requirements, please email at fslalondon@gmail.com

FSLA Essay Competition 2024

By | Events, Junior Lawyers, Students | No Comments

The Financial Services Lawyers Association is pleased to announce its annual essay competition.

The title for this year’s competition is: “With the rise of so-called “finfluencers”, how can the FCA and its international counterparts effectively protect younger consumers from high-risk investments such as cryptoassets and contracts for difference?”

The purpose of the essay competition is to provide students, trainees, and pupil barristers with the opportunity to apply their studies to issues that are of particular relevance to the financial services industry and wider society.

Essays should be no longer than 1,500 words, and the deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 11 October 2024.

Prizes

The Chris Stallard Memorial (First) Prize: £1,500 and a legal internship at the FCA Second Prize: £750 Third prize: £500

We hope to present the prizes at FSLA’s winter social event.  In any case, winners will be notified by the end of 2024.

There is no requirement that entrants be FSLA members; however, free membership is offered to all students.  Please email fslalondon@gmail.com for further details. The full rules for the competition, including submission details and terms applying to the prizes, can be found here.

Progress Your Career With FSLA

Financial Services Practitioners

Find out about work and social events, our social mobility and pro bono schemes, and more.

More about Practitioners

Junior Lawyers

Click here for information about events for junior financial services lawyers.

More about Junior Lawyers

Students

Find out about the annual essay competition and our student focused events.

More about students

“In the end, our financial system only works – our market is only free – when there are clear rules and basic safeguards that prevent abuse, that check excess, that ensure that it is more profitable to play by the rules than to game the system. And that’s what these reforms are designed to achieve – no more, no less. Because that’s how we will ensure that our economy works for consumers, that it works for investors, that it works for financial institutions – that it works for all of us.”

(Barack Obama, at the signing of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act)