Regulatory and compliance · Regulatory and compliance team, partner, knowledge lead
From a horizon development to a client update
Regulatory change usually reaches a firm as a forwarded email from whoever reads the most. Horizon Scanning turns it into a register with materiality bands, deadlines and owners, and one action moves a development straight into a client letter.
- Agents
- First draft
- A client update drafted from a horizon row in one action, unattended; the partner signs it off the same day.
- Steps
- 6
The problem
Step 01 of 06
Set up the watch
Jurisdictions and source packs are chosen once; picking a practice area during onboarding can pre-install the matching pack.
Step 02 of 06
Read the register
Each development row carries the source, the date, a materiality band, a deadline, an owner and any linked matters. Quiet scans still appear in the register.
Step 03 of 06
Pick the one that matters
A high-materiality development with an effective date four weeks out is linked to two live matters through matching practice area and counterparties.
Step 04 of 06
Draft the client update
One action on the row dispatches a drafting run with the Client Update preset and the development already attached.
Step 05 of 06
Read the letter
Plain English, no section numbers in the body, a clear statement of what changed, who it affects and what to do next.
Step 06 of 06
Sign off and send
The partner ticks the action items, clicks Verify all, and either downloads a PDF or shares a passcode link with the view logged.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- A plain-English client update explaining what changed, who it affects and what to do next.
- The linked matters a development touches, identified by matching practice area, jurisdiction or counterparties.
- Authorities behind the letter, each with a verdict, resolving to the regulator's own published guidance.
- A reusable draft that can be re-run against a second client's matter with a client-specific instruction added.
What it does not do
- It does not decide which developments count as material for the firm; the materiality band is the triage, a person still reads the row.
- It does not send the letter without a sign-off; the partner ticks the action items first.
- A quiet scan is shown as a quiet scan rather than hidden, so a watch that has stopped covering anything is visible as a coverage gap.