In short
An SRA-regulated firm has to show its SRA number and the SRA's digital badge on its website. Letterhead and emails must show the SRA authorisation number and the words "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority".[1] Everything else about your brand is your choice, as long as your publicity stays accurate and not misleading.
This guide is for a managing partner or practice manager who is getting a new website or a refresh. It covers the website, letterhead and emails around a brand. It does not cover logo design or brand strategy (see the last section).
What counts as law firm branding?
Everything a client sees and reads that says who you are: your name, logo, colours, type, photography and tone of voice, and where they appear. For a solicitors firm it also includes the regulatory details, because they sit in the same footer, letterhead and email template as the design.
A client often meets the brand first on a website or in an email. A brand that pushes the price link or the complaints link out of view gets in the way. The sections below start with the items that are fixed, then turn to the parts you can design freely.
What does the SRA make a firm show, and where?
Four things sit in the SRA's Transparency Rules. These are your number and badge on the website, your number and wording on letterhead and emails, your complaints procedure, and cost information for listed services. Company law adds three more details for a company.[1][3]
| Item | Where it must appear | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| SRA number | Website, in a prominent place. Letterhead and emails, as the authorisation number. | Transparency Rules 4.1 and 4.2[1] |
| SRA digital badge | Website, in a prominent place. The rule does not name letterhead or emails. | Rule 4.1[1] |
| The words "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority" | Letterhead and emails. Rule 4.1 does not name the website.[1] | Rule 4.2[1] |
| Complaints procedure, including how and when to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA | Website. The rule does not name letterhead or emails. | Rule 2.1[1] |
| Cost information for the listed services | Website, clear and in a prominent place. The rule does not name letterhead or emails. | Rules 1.1 and 1.6[1] |
| Company: part of the UK where registered, registered number, registered office address | Website. Letterhead, on business letters. Emails, when the email is a business letter.[3] | Regulations 25 and 29, 2015 Regulations[3] |
The company row covers companies only. Regulation 25 does not mention limited liability partnerships, so an LLP should check its own disclosure rules.[3] The Transparency Rules say "prominent place" for the number, the badge and the cost information. They do not say which part of the page.
The firm stays responsible for its own compliance. Check your own wording against the rules, or with your compliance officer.
What we found on 17 firm homepages
On 29 October 2026 we read the homepages of 17 firms. We found them by searching "solicitors" plus eight city names and taking firm sites in the order the results were listed. Of 20 sites sampled, one was not an SRA-regulated firm and two could not be read, so 17 are counted.
Firm homepages with each item in the page HTML, out of 17
Show the numbers
| On the homepage | Homepages (of 17) |
|---|---|
| SRA badge script | 13 |
| Link with price, cost or fees in its text | 13 |
| SRA number | 12 |
| Link with "complaint" in its text | 11 |
Treat this as a small look, not a survey. The limits:
- The sample came from a search tool, not the SRA register. It is small, not random, and leans towards larger firms in big cities.
- We read the homepage HTML only, on one day, so a badge or link added by a script after the page loads would count as a "no".
- Links were judged by their words. A link saying "fees" or "prices" was not opened to see where it led.
"No" here means not on the homepage. It does not mean a broken rule. Rule 4.1 asks for the number and badge on the website, not necessarily the homepage, and the complaints or price details may sit on another page.[1]
What does a layout with room for every fixed item look like?
Like an ordinary firm homepage with a header, a hero, practice areas, links to prices and complaints, and a footer that holds the regulatory details. The drawing below is ours, of a made-up firm. It is a layout that has room for every fixed item, not a certificate of anything.
- Firm name, at the top. This is your brand space.
- Phone number, at the top, so a visitor can call from any page.
- Hero: one plain line about what you do and who for.
- Practice areas, linking to pages that carry the cost information (rule 1.1).
- A visible link to prices, so identity does not push it off the page.
- A visible link to the complaints procedure (rule 2.1).
- The SRA number (rule 4.1: prominent place) and the company details (regulation 25).
- The SRA digital badge, placed where a visitor will see it (rule 4.1 says "prominent place").
What does the digital badge need from you?
A website address recorded in your mySRA account, and then a wait. The badge became mandatory on 25 November 2019.[2] It only works on websites linked to the firm's mySRA.[2] The SRA asks you to wait at least 24 hours after updating your website details before you try to use it.[2]
- Record your site in mySRAAn authorised signatory or organisation contact enters the website address under Office Details.
- Wait at least 24 hoursThe SRA asks for this before you try to use the logo.
- Add the badgeThe SRA's partner Yoshki supplies the clickable logo. Add it in a prominent place.
- Click it yourselfOur advice, not an SRA step: check it opens and loads on a phone.
Source: SRA, "Clickable logo". The page does not say where on the page the badge must sit beyond the "prominent place" in rule 4.1.[2]
Which parts of the brand are yours to choose?
Most of it: the name treatment, colours, type, photography, voice, and how large and where the fixed items sit. The rules fix what must be present, not how it looks.
| Part of the brand | Fixed by the rules | Yours to choose |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory details | SRA number, digital badge, wording on letterhead and emails | Type size, colour, and the footer layout, so long as the badge stays in a prominent place |
| Complaints and prices | Published on the website, in the case of prices clear and prominent | Link labels, page design, plain-English tone |
| Name, logo, colours, type, photography | Nothing in the rules above | All of it. Keep text readable on a phone. |
| Voice and brand line | Publicity must be accurate and not misleading | Tone and wording, with evidence for any claim |
Do letterhead and emails count as branding?
Yes: letterhead and emails must show the SRA authorisation number and the regulatory wording, and the form's auto-reply is easy to miss.[1] That automatic reply is an email, so it carries them too. Our website design page makes the same point about forms.
Check your site, stationery and emails
- Rule: website shows the SRA number and the digital badge in a prominent place
- Rule: letterhead shows the SRA authorisation number and the words "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority"
- Rule: a normal email from a fee earner shows the number and the words
- Rule: the auto-reply from your website form shows the number and the words
- Rule: a link to the complaints procedure is on the website
- Rule: company details (UK part, number, registered office) are on the website, business letters and business emails
- Good practice: a quote or engagement email and a PDF brochure footer carry the same details
- Good practice: the footer details also sit on every page of the site, not only the home page
How far can brand claims go?
As far as you can prove. The SRA's Code of Conduct says publicity must be accurate and not misleading.[4] Its warning notice on marketing to the public says material must be clear, transparent and accurate, and names awards or other credentials held by your firm.[5] Keep the evidence for any brand line that states a fact.
- Awards or credentials: the award, the year and the body that gave it.
- Charges: the same figures as your price pages.
- Results: what the case or the period was, so a reader cannot take it for a promise.
- Reviews: where they are from and whether they are all of them or a selection.
For marketing that goes through a lead source or agency, our guide to claims marketing due diligence has the questions to ask.
How do you brief a designer on this?
Send the fixed-items table first. A designer who sees it on day one draws the footer and the email template around it, and you avoid rework at sign-off. If you are still choosing who to brief, start with how to choose a legal marketing agency.
Put the price link and the complaints link on the brief too. Brand and prices share the home page, so the identity should not push the price link out of view. The SRA price and complaints checklist has the detail.
Naelar designs and builds law firm websites, including the price and service information the SRA Transparency Rules ask for. The firm owns its domain and website, and compliance stays with the firm. Before Naelar, Rishabh spent four years running intake, marketing and systems inside law firms. See web design for law firms regulated by the SRA.
When is this the wrong guide?
If you want a logo, a name or a full brand strategy from scratch. This guide covers the website and stationery rules around a brand, not how to design one. A branding studio does that, and our table is then the first page of its brief.
Common questions
Do we need the badge if we already show our SRA number?
Yes. Rule 4.1 names both the SRA number and the SRA's digital badge for the website.[1]
What must an email footer say?
Rule 4.2 says emails must show the firm's SRA authorisation number and the words "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority".[1]
Does the website need the same wording as the letterhead?
Rule 4.1 asks for the SRA number and the digital badge on the website. The wording is named in rule 4.2 for letterhead and emails. Adding it to the footer is a choice, not a rule.[1]
Can a firm mention awards in its branding?
Only if it can show the award. The SRA says publicity must be accurate and not misleading, and its warning notice names awards or other credentials held by the firm.[5]
Tick the fixed items on your own site this week
You need the table above, your homepage and your last three sent emails.
- Print the fixed-items table and the check list.
- Open your homepage on a phone and find the SRA number and the badge. Click the badge.
- Open three recent outgoing emails, including the auto-reply from your enquiry form, and read the footer of each.
- Look at your letterhead template against rule 4.2.
- Write down every gap, and hand the list to whoever updates the site and templates.
Sources
- Solicitors Regulation Authority, "SRA Transparency Rules", rules 1.1, 1.6, 2.1, 4.1 and 4.2, sra.org.uk. Checked 29 October 2026.
- Solicitors Regulation Authority, "Clickable logo", sra.org.uk. Page shows no date. Checked 29 October 2026.
- The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015, regulations 25 and 29, latest available version, regulation 25 and regulation 29 on legislation.gov.uk. Checked 29 October 2026.
- Solicitors Regulation Authority, "Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs", paragraph 8.8, sra.org.uk. Checked 29 October 2026.
- Solicitors Regulation Authority, "Marketing your services to members of the public" (warning notice), 19 December 2024, sra.org.uk. Checked 29 October 2026.
Our own data: Naelar homepage check, 29 October 2026, 17 UK firm homepages read. Method and limits on request.