The belief that the delivery of legal services is becoming increasingly commoditised is a development that is intended to and has the effect of reducing prices. This error of judgment is having a profoundly damaging effect on law firms’ strategic objectives and in particular, their whole approach to pricing and profitability. Nor is this delusion confined to work like will drafting and residential conveyancing. I have heard clients describe everything from an AIM listing of a substantial corporate to complex bank financing described as ‘commoditised legal work’. The worst of it is that partners often agree, albeit reluctantly.

We asked ourselves the question: ‘What if we could start again?’ Like a firearms amnesty for law firms, all would be forgiven, you would hand in your law firms, all your staff, all your property and all your liabilities and start again – we’d have one huge pre-pack without a buyer! In fact, it would be better to have no buyers at all; every man and woman would be for themselves.

The Legal Education and Training Review report was published this week to a collective ‘meh’. In an age of instant judgements, that it failed to deliver either a devastating critique of the current regime or suggest sweeping reforms for the future seemed to mean to many that it was already destined for the long grass. Worse still, in the eyes of some (including, dare I say, my fellow hacks), it ran to 350 pages, used some jargon and had been compiled by academics.

At the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, we are keen to see more change in the regulation and delivery of legal services before we see a reduction in the number of regulators. But there is one area that we do think is ripe for simplification now and that is in the arrangements for compensation. A single compensation fund across all regulators would bring real consumer benefits and reduce regulatory costs.

Your COFA should live, sleep, eat and breathe financial management. This isn’t optional; rule 1 of the Accounts Rules demands compliance with the SRA principles and Code of Conduct in relation to effective financial management of the firm. So what is effective financial management? Outcomes-focused regulation usually means you have to guess what the SRA expects; however, in a rare moment of clarity, the SRA has explained exactly what good and bad financial management looks like.