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The Legal Services Board’s “unduly detailed approach to oversight” risks undermining professional independence, the Law Society president has claimed. John Wotton also argued that alternative business structures have “no magic bullet in competitive terms”.

The Legal Services Board has activated statutory powers that require the Law Society to provide monthly reports on whether it is complying with rules that are meant to ensure the independence of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

We may be in an era of outcomes-focused regulation, but nobody thought to tell those who drew up the deal between the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority over their governance arrangements. To me it is further evidence that the arrangement by which the SRA is both independent and yet part of the Law Society is unlikely to stand the test of time

Amid the excitement of ABSs going live, in a small way, and the Legal Ombudsman’s first birthday, I have been keeping an eye on the third limb of the Legal Services Board’s initial three priorities for its first three years – ensuring the independence of regulation within those approved regulators where there is also a representative function. With both the Law Society and Bar Council still non-compliant with its rules, it is not a story that reflects very well on the LSB.

Charles Plant, the chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), has finally said the unsayable and brought into focus what could well be the long-term future of regulation for lawyers – a single regulator for all, rather than the multiplicity we currently have.