Legal Services Board
Bar Council and BSB agree protocol to strengthen regulatory independence
The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board have published a protocol for ensuring the latter’s regulatory independence, fulfilling undertakings the pair gave to the Legal Services Board.
SRA dismisses questions over need for OFR
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has hit back over a report questioning why it introduced both entity and outcomes-focused regulation, saying it was acting in the interests of both consumers and lawyers.
Two years into OFR and now LSB research asks: why did we need it?
The move by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to embrace entity-based and outcomes-focused regulation is hard to understand, major new research commissioned by the Legal Services Board and Law Society has claimed.
Criminal law barristers urged to embrace new business structures to survive
Criminal law barristers need to consider significant changes to their business models if they are to remain competitive, the Legal Services Board has argued. It said liberalisation is one of the reasons the government does not need to intervene in the criminal advocacy market.
Here come the accountants and legal executives…
Competition in the law is to increase further after the Legal Services Board backed accountants to handle reserved probate work and set up alternative business structures, as well as chartered legal executives to set up their own conveyancing and probate practices.
… as LSB chair accuses Law Society and Bar of wanting to stifle competition
The Law Society and Bar Council’s call for the government to return large swathes of regulation to them is self-serving and aims to restrict competition, the chairman of the Legal Services Board has claimed.
MPs probe OLC chair-in-waiting, as CMC complaints impasse finally broken
The Legal Ombudsman should swap the telephone for the internet as the main way it deals with the public and in doing so reflect the market it serves, according to the man likely to become chair of its oversight body, the Office for Legal Complaints.
IPReg poised to become ABS licensing authority number 3
The prospect of external investment in intellectual property firms is set to soar after the Intellectual Property Regulation Board won the support of the Legal Services Board to become the third alternative business structure licensing authority.
LSB: we will attack the barriers to “radical change”
The Legal Services Board has pledged to attack the “cultural resistance to radical change” that it said was necessary for the legal market to thrive. It will also target unnecessary restrictions on new business structures and the cost of regulation.
LSB: Bar Council interfered with independence of BSB over cab-rank rule changes
The Bar Council has accepted that breached the independence of the Bar Standards Board by interfering in controversial changes to the cab-rank rule, it emerged today. The Legal Services Board has however agreed to an informal resolution, having considered a censure.
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Five key issues to consider when adopting an AI-based legal tech
As generative AI starts to play a bigger role in our working lives, there are some key issues that your law firm needs to consider when adopting an AI-based legal tech.
Bulk litigation – not always working in consumers interests
For consumers to get the benefit, bulk litigation needs to be done well, and we are increasingly concerned that there are significant problems in some areas of this market.
ABSs, cost and audits – fixing regulation after Axiom Ince
A feature of law firm collapses and frauds has sometimes been the over-concentration of power in outdated and overburdened systems of control.
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