It is plain that the SRA is keen to be seen as innovative, forward-thinking and ultimately the ‘regulator of choice’ when it comes to MDP ABSs. However, when you look beyond the hype of this development and consider the detail, it becomes clear that the SRA’s methodology in licensing MDPs is fundamentally flawed.

LASPO! There I’ve said it. I believe everyone has now crawled out of their Jackson proof bunkers and realised that there life out there and there is a continuing need for personal injury lawyers, but it just isn’t quite the same as it was pre April 2013.

At the beginning of the year we launched a whole new strategy for supervising chambers – based on identifying existing risks in the way in which chambers run their businesses and responding proportionately. In my many years at the Bar Standards Board (BSB), this is a different way of doing things, done by a fresh team.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority recently published data showing a 47% increase in the number of solicitor-on-solicitor complaints received in 2013 (2,698); it also provided data that showed a four-fold increase in the number of self-reports made (1,019).

There’s been a lot of chatter around the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposal to allow paralegals to qualify as solicitors, without undertaking a formal training contract, and many voices argue that this will lead to a further dumbing down of the profession.