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The reservation of will-writing and estate administration should boost the amount of work and allow existing providers such as solicitors to become more competitive, the Legal Services Board said today as it laid out how the regime will work.

The process of enabling chartered legal executives to set up their own practices has begun with their regulator looking for the power to award them rights to conduct litigation, conveyancing and probate without needing the supervision of a solicitor.

Comparisons between the 2012 Olympics and the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) nomination process are more obvious than you might think: both were years in the preparation, shrouded in mystery, beset by operational PR disasters and, ultimately, over in a flash. This month’s blog brings you live coverage of the five-month dash: that’s how long your COLP has to get the firm’s house in order before they become responsible for compliance. Like bog-snorkelling and extreme ironing, the five-month dash is a niche sport, unlikely to grace the Olympics, but pundits are predicting there’ll be a least 11,000 participants by the end of the year.

Satisfaction with legal services providers is high, major new research has found, with those using solicitors likely to get a better result than those who sought advice from other providers. But fewer than half of those with legal needs sought professional help.

The ban on law centres and other not-for-profit organisations charging for advice should be lifted as part of plans to bring them into the alternative business structure regime, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.