Tag Results
Experts call for urgent reform of rules on taking over failing law firms
Tuesday, 25 January 2011Rules governing law firms’ ability to acquire the case loads of failing firms should both be relaxed and made more certain for the benefit of the profession and clients, insolvency and legal experts have argued.
Tags: Solicitors Regulation Authority, successor practices
Posted in Indemnity insurance, News, Solicitors
Expert group to advise on advocacy scheme as Bar regulator hits out at LSB once more
Monday, 24 January 2011Lord Justice Thomas is heading a new expert group to advise the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Bar Standards Board and ILEX Professional Standards on developing and operating the controversial quality assurance for advocates scheme, it has emerged. Meanwhile, the BSB has hit out again at the Legal Services Board’s “unhelpful and ill-timed” intervention over the scheme.
Tags: advocacy, Bar Council, bar standards board, ILEX, ILEX Professional Standards, Joint Advocacy Group, Law Society, QAA, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Barristers, Legal Executives, Legal Services Board, News, Solicitors
Timetable for outcomes-focused regulation is too tight and too risky, Law Society warns
Sunday, 23 January 2011The timetable for bringing in outcomes-focused regulation is too tight to understand the full consequences, and risks a breakdown in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s relationship with the profession, the Law Society has warned.
Tags: Law Society, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
Hudson lambasts SRA over indemnity reform and for “mismanaging” ARP
Thursday, 20 January 2011Solicitors Regulation Authority proposals to exclude lender and other financial institution claims from the scope of compulsory professional indemnity insurance will be “massively damaging to the profession” and lead to more expensive and longer conveyancing transactions for the public, Law Society chief executive Des Hudson has warned.
Tags: Law Society, professional indemnity insurance, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Indemnity insurance, News, Solicitors
Consumer panel backs separate business rule with dig at the Co-op
Wednesday, 19 January 2011Law firms and alternative business structures should not be allowed to dodge regulation by establishing separate businesses to handle unreserved work, the Legal Services Consumer Panel said this week. The panel also appeared to rebuke Co-operative Legal Services – whose stated intention is to be one of the first ABSs – for calling for freedom in how businesses choose to provide unreserved work.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Legal Services Consumer Panel, reserved legal activities, separate business rule, Solicitors Code of Conduct, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Consumer panel, News, Solicitors
The themes of 2011, part 2
Tuesday, 18 January 2011Last week I highlighted alternative business structures, the Legal Services Board and diversity as three of the key themes I expect to pervade Legal Futures’ coverage of the market in 2011. Here are three more, again in no particular order: the Legal Ombudsman, professional indemnity insurance, and outcomes-focused regulation/the new Solicitors Handbook.
Tags: Legal Ombudsman, outcomes-focused regulation, professional indemnity insurance, professional negligence, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
New recruits move BSB closer to lay majority
Tuesday, 18 January 2011The Bar Standards Board has fulfilled its side of the deal struck with the Legal Services Board over its lay/professional composition, with four new members taking office this month. There is now an equal number of lay and professional members ahead of a lay majority being in place after further changes next year. Later this year the Solicitors Regulation Authority will also move to parity before a lay majority is appointed for 2013.
Tags: bar standards board, Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, ILEX Professional Standards, Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, internal governance rules, IPReg, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Barristers, Legal Executives, Legal Services Board, News, Other lawyers
Keeping control – managing the regulatory risks of outsourcing
Monday, 17 January 2011In the first of a two-part article, Duncan Finlyson of Legal Futures Lawyers Defence Group investigates the reasons for law firms to outsource certain functions and the regulatory issues that they throw up.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, legal process outsourcing, outsourcing, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Outsourcing
The themes of 2011, part 1
Friday, 14 January 2011It is hard to resist the journalist’s natural inclination at this time of the year to fill space with predictions for the year ahead. But 2011 is a hard year to predict – 6 October is unlikely to be the big bang so beloved of headline-writers over the years (myself included), although undoubtedly some organisations will seek first-mover advantage by making announcements that day.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, bar standards board, equality and diversity, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Blog
More firms sign up to SRA relationship management pilot
Wednesday, 12 January 2011Seven law firms have joined the second wave of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) relationship management (RM) pilot. RM may be one of the ways the SRA supervises firms according to its assessment of the risks the firm poses as part of outcomes-focused regulation, which goes live in October.
Tags: Indemnity insurance, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors