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Barristers are likely to be allowed to form partnerships next year and before they can create alternative business structures, the Bar Standards Board said last week. Meanwhile, it dropped a proposal to force barristers to withdraw from cases where a client refuses to reveal previous convictions to the court.

The Legal Services Board yesterday expressed continuing concerns about the independence of the Solicitors Regulation Authority from the Law Society. This has led the LSB to issue a new statutory notice requiring the society to provide it with information.

The possibility of the Law Society and other representative bodies being cut off from any of the money raised by practising fees has been raised by a Legal Services Board call for an “open debate on the cost of regulation”.

The Legal Services Board yesterday laid out how it will monitor the impact of alternative business structures and other reforms on access to justice. The attempt to “baseline” access to justice and to evaluate change over time proposes 18 measures.

That was the third August through which Legal Futures has reported, and each time it has proven a surprisingly busy month. The last four and a half weeks have left us with plenty to ponder. First up we are finally starting to see alternative business structures approved on a regular basis; this is not great surprise now that we are eight months into the process. There was also the second discussion paper from the Legal Education and Training Review and the Law Society cancelling its annual conference.