Legal Services Board
LSB chair calls on Law Society and SRA to stop “spats”
The chairman of the Legal Services Board has criticised the “continuing spats” between the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority. David Edmonds also praised the improvements made by the SRA to the process for licensing alternative business structures.
LSB bids to stamp authority on post-LETR reform agenda
The Legal Services Board is to issue statute-backed guidelines to compel legal regulators to follow its vision of how reforms resulting from the Legal Education and Training Review should be implemented.
BSB joins SRA in bid for structural independence
The Bar Standards Board has made a bid for formal independence from the barristers it oversees – the second frontline regulator to use the Ministry of Justice’s review of legal services regulation to make the case.
“Productive and innovative” ABSs beginning to make their mark, says LSB
New business structures are more productive and innovative than traditional law firms, Legal Services Board research has found. It also said that alternative business structures are “starting to have an impact” on some parts of the market and collectively have a 5% market share.
LSB lays out vision of radical reform of legal regulation
The Legal Services Board has today published its “blueprint for deregulation”, the culmination of which would be a new single regulator for the legal market that is “organisationally, statutorily and culturally fully independent of both government and representative bodies’ vested interests”.
Criminal barristers seek judicial review of LSB over QASA
A long-awaited judicial review of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) has been launched by criminal law barristers against the Legal Services Board (LSB).
LSB urges Chancery Lane to find budget savings
The Legal Services Board has urged the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority to “actively look for savings opportunities” after the society’s budget increased by £11.5m for the next year. It also criticised a lack of consultation with fee payers over what they will have to pay.
Time for a single regulator and code of conduct? Consumer panel calls for the nuclear option
A single regulator for all legal services providers and a single code of conduct is the way forward for the market, the Legal Services Consumer Panel argued today. It essentially recommended tearing up the Legal Services Act 2007 and starting again.
Conveyancers face new referral fee disclosure rules but no ban
The Legal Services Board has backed improvements to the transparency of referral fees paid by licensed conveyancers following a review that found absolutely no justification for a ban.
SRA “loosening shackles” of separate business rule
There are signs of the Solicitors Regulation Authority relaxing its strict interpretation of a key rule which may be “dampening” innovation and new entrants to the market, according to the Legal Services Board.
Blog
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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