ESSEX-based legal practice Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP has beaten off stiff competition from more than 200 firms to represent the national regulation body for solicitors in East Anglia.

ESSEX-based legal practice Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP has beaten off stiff competition from more than 200 firms to represent the national regulation body for solicitors in East Anglia.

The Colchester firm has been appointed to assist the work carried out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridge for a three-year period.

The work involves taking over the management, and some work, of those solicitors' practices in which the SRA has intervened because of fraud or ineffectiveness.

Fisher Jones Greenwood is one of just 24 practices from across the UK to be appointed by the SRA to form the official Intervention Agents Panel.

Tony Fisher, Chris Yemm and Mike Theeman from the firm will all act as agents for the SRA. Fisher Jones Greenwood

Mr Fisher, senior partner at Fisher Jones Greenwood, which is celebrating its 25th year in Colchester and also holds the Lexcel Law Society quality mark, said: “The intervention into a practice is designed to protect the clients' interests and money.

“As an agent, we will be required to protect the public by ensuring that solicitors meet high standards and by acting when risks are identified. It is a prestigious appointment and we are proud to have been selected out of such a large number of candidates to represent the SRA in our region.”

SRA chief executive Antony Townsend, added: “We actively encouraged applications from all parts of the legal community and we were very pleased with the number and quality of responses. We have an excellent panel in place to help us with interventions, which are a key means of protecting the public.”