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The Legal Services Consumer Panel has indicated its desire to see the composition of the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority change before the end of the current members’ terms so as to achieve a lay majority.

The chairman of the Legal Services Board has hit back at Law Society criticism of his organisation, and warned that Chancery Lane is creating an unnecessarily complex relationship with the Solicitors Regulation Authority that goes against the recommendations of the Hunt review.

The Coalition government has scotched rumours that it is to scrap alternative business structures (ABSs), Legal Futures can confirm. We further understand that both ABSs and the Office for Legal Complaints are likely to get the green light from the Cabinet committee set up last week to review all upcoming regulation.

This week’s Question of Ethics from the Solicitors Regulation Authority looks at the circumstances under which the SRA will allow a solicitor to breach an undertaking without entertaining a complaint about it.

Solicitors have agreed to pay back to clients over £1 million to end investigations being conducted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Legal Futures can reveal.

Complaints against conveyancers are on the rise, but complaints against personal injury lawyers have fallen dramatically, figures from the Legal Complaints Service have shown.

The move from regulating individuals to regulating entities means threatens to make undertakings less effective than in the past and so recipients need to take extra care, explains Iain Miller of Bevan Brittan.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will this week ask the Law Society Council for around £22 million to invest in a new IT system, Legal Futures can reveal. The ‘Enabling Programme’ will also offer benefits to the wider Law Society but has come in at more than 50% more than estimated a year ago.

Nearly half of large law firms are planning to become alternative business structures (ABSs), Investec Specialist Private Bank has reported. A poll of 30 managing partners at an Investec event held last month revealed that 45% are considering establishing an ABS, and 36% are contemplating becoming a multi-disciplinary practice.

Dominic Cullis, chairman of the Legal Software Suppliers Association, considers what alternative business structures mean for high street firms that want to retain their current model and the role IT has in the new legal landscape.