Regulatory Information
Provision of client services
By accessing this website, you are receiving information about the way Castletown Law conducts its business. A relationship between you or your business and Castletown Law will only be created as a Client relationship by entering into an engagement including a written request by you for provision of services or the issuing to you or your business, of advice following on an oral request for such advice. By accessing this website, you will be deemed to be aware of the site and its content as it applies to the provision of services by Castletown Law to you or your business.
The provision of legal services in the United Kingdom is governed by Regulation. Solicitors are bound to abide by the standards set in the regulations and Solicitors conduct is monitored and audited by the professional bodies to whom Solicitors are accountable including the Law Society of Scotland, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, any bar association or other regulator including where appropriate the FSA. The rules require solicitors to engage with clients under specific terms and the information contained on this site will provide information for compliance with those rules and regulations. A contract can only be formed by agreement between us which concludes a relationship of Solicitor and Client. The Solicitor Client relationship is a special relationship designed to provide absolute confidentiality in the conduct of a client’s business and to provide a client with the appropriate assurance about the standards and care with which legal services are provided.
When we enter into a contract with you for provision of services you will receive provision of legal services to the standard required. A failure to provide those services with reasonable skill and care to the standard to be reasonably expected, will entitle you to complain about the standard of service. Complaints should initially be addressed to our Complaints Officer and the Principal of our business by email to Andrew Renton.
If you suffer loss or sustain damage as a direct consequence of a failure by us to provide you with legal services to the required standard, you will be entitled to compensation. The compensation available to you will be under the terms of the Law Society Master Professional Indemnity Policy to which we subscribe as full members. If you wish to see the terms of our policy cover, you may request that information or seek confirmation from the Law Society of Scotland of our registration details.
Anti-bribery and corruption laws
We have anti-bribery and anti-corruption regulation, policies and procedures which apply to all our services. These policies prohibit the making, offering or promising to make a payment or transfer anything of value for any improper purpose. These policies apply to dealings by any party on behalf of our business irrespective of their relationship with our business.
Anti-money laundering laws
In many jurisdictions, laws apply to combat money laundering. These laws may restrict our ability to act for you, in circumstances where you are unable to provide to us with the required information. The information is to satisfy the statutory requirements which we must comply with, to prevent a potential prosecution for failure to comply with the anti-money laundering legislation, irrespective of whether any money laundering has or was intended to take place.
For private companies, we require proof of the beneficial ownership, proof of identity of the beneficial owner in the form of registered passport and home address details, including authority from the beneficial owner to the person from whom we will receive instructions. For individuals we require passport details and proof of primary address.
Additional services
In addition to legal services we will provide business consultancy and business and commercial advisory services. These services are not within the regulatory structure for legal services but are provided on a commercial basis as part of our overall engagement. The legal services we provide are only those services which fall within the scope of the regulated services under statutory provisions.
Professional service providers
Castletown Law is owned by the solicitors who provide legal services and advice to the clients of Castletown Law. Castletown Law will be responsible for all the advice delivered to clients by or through Castletown Law including inputs from our external consultants mentioned on our webpages.
All service providers will work on the same terms and conditions as provided by Castletown Law. All charges for our experts will be charged through and invoiced by Castletown Law at rates to be agreed with clients.
All external service providers are contracted to Castletown Law and no external service provider is employed by or retained on a permanent basis by Castletown Law.
Where we work in jurisdictions where we are not a party to the regulated structure, we will provide services as a business consultancy and commercial advisory service and utilise local law experts as appropriate.
We work with Bird & Bird LLP as our preferred provider of legal services on a global basis and we will in normal circumstances cooperate with and instruct Bird & Bird as our correspondent firm in any relevant jurisdiction. There are jurisdictions in which Bird & Bird does not operate directly and in such cases, we will utilise the member firms of Bird & Bird relationship network. On rare occasions where there is no such firm, we will agree with you the appropriate local representation.
We will in all cases, consider with you whether the use of Bird & Bird or their relationship firm, is appropriate and use only those firms that you consider appropriate.
More regulatory information
For more information see: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/; https://www.scottishlawagents.org/; https://www.lawscot.org.uk/
Financial Services and Markets Act 2000
Some investment-related activities are regulated under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”) of the United Kingdom.
Required disclosure
We are not authorised under FSMA, but we are able, in certain circumstances, to offer a limited range of investment services to the client because we are a regulated Law firm. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the legal services we have been engaged to provide.
As we are not authorised under FSMA, we are only permitted to communicate invitations or inducements to engage in investment activities (“financial promotions”) where these have been approved by an authorised person or are exempt from the requirement for such approval.
Referrals
Where clients seek services concerning investments which are either not incidental to our legal services or are not otherwise ones which we are able to provide, the firm may refer the clients to someone who is authorised by the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”).
