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The Law Society and consumer groups are to blame for the Legal Ombudsman dropping its ‘two free complaints a year’ offer, the chief ombudsman has explained. Meanwhile, allowing complaints from people who are not clients will not be an extra burden on the profession, he pledged.

The Law Society will challenge the application by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to become an alternative business structure regulator, Legal Futures can report. The question of separating regulation and representation is a key bone of contention.

It’s not like the Legal Services Board (LSB) to spring a surprise, but its announcement last week that it was not going to recommend that estate administration become a reserved legal activity – while pushing ahead with will-writing – certainly was one. My initial reaction, along with many of those reported on Legal Futures last week, was one of bafflement. Surely of the three elements of the process – will writing, probate and estate administration – it is the latter where the highest risk of fraud occurs and thus where regulation is most needed. Instead the first two will be. I understand that it was a real knife-edge decision by the LSB, and on reflection I think I agree with it.

Only a third of large firms who are signed up to a Law Society diversity charter – including three-quarters of the top-100 – have adopted flexible working, which helps explain why their partnerships remain “overwhelmingly white, heterosexual, male and able bodied”, the society’s president has complained.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposed whistleblowing policy could undermine the role of compliance officers, fail to work because of mistrust by lawyers, and clash with solicitors’ ethical duties, according to the Law Society.