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In the short time I’ve known her, the chairwoman of the Legal Services Consumer Panel, Baroness/Dr Dianne Hayter (she seems to operate under her non-enobled title), has not minced her words. However, she is perhaps being restrained when she tells Legal Futures that the panel is “disappointed” with the agreement that has been struck over the introduction of lay majorities on the boards of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board.

Solicitors are set to shoulder the vast majority of the Legal Services Board (LSB) and Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO) £25m annual running costs for the next three years at least, it emerged today. The LSB confirmed that it would proceed with its plan to levy its own £5m costs on the basis of the number of authorised persons overseen by each approved regulator, and most of LeO’s £20m costs based on the number of complaints generated by each group.

There has been a 47% jump in the number of solicitors struck off and the figure is now at its highest for over a decade, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has revealed. Some 84 solicitors were removed from the roll in the year to 30 April 2010, compared to 57 in the previous 12 months. It is the highest number since at least 1999, which is the furthest back Legal Futures has been able to trace.

Regulators should consider making diversity training mandatory for senior partners and line managers in law firms, say academics after research uncovered a complex web of barriers between minorities and women, and the upper reaches of the legal profession. The findings will be backed up by a forthcoming study into pay disparity by the Law Society that has uncovered “a kind of structural inequality”.

The Law Society will this month unveil a £4m conveyancing quality scheme that aims to help solicitors maintain market share and improve profitability. At the centre of the scheme will be an updated conveyancing protocol to which all members will have to adhere from 1 April 2011, alongside core practice management standards.