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The Solicitors Regulation Authority, once criticised for taking too long to approve alternative business structures, is now regularly approving applications from legal disciplinary practices in only two weeks, it has emerged.

The Law Society does not oppose non-graduates becoming solicitors, despite its chief executive saying earlier this week that they would devalue the qualification, it said yesterday. Catherine Dixon had written that the SRA plan to allow non-graduates to qualify had the potential to damage the profession’s reputation.

The presence of legal professional privilege creates a “serious distortion to the competitive environment” of the legal services market, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has argued. The ICAEW said some law firms marketed themselves on the basis that their advice was confiential.

The Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority yesterday drew the battle lines that will define the argument over independent regulation of the legal profession. The question was not whether the regulatory arms of bodies such as the Law Society should be independent – which the government said last year they should be – but what functions they would have under a new settlement.

A sole practitioner who refused to close his firm after failing to find indemnity insurance has been struck off and ordered to pay £20,000 costs. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal described Anthony Alabi as having a “cavalier attitude to regulation”.

The Law Society yesterday rowed back from its support for would-be solicitors being able to qualify without degrees, putting it at odds with government backing for apprenticeships. Its chief executive said allowing it risked damaging the profession’s standing and even the global status of England and Wales as a jurisdiction.

Four local authorities in the south of England are set to create an alternative business structure in a bid to increase their income in a time of budget cuts. Brighton & Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council, Surrey County Council and West Sussex County Council are first to bring together their legal teams in a partnership.

Plans to create three new breeds of lawyer – probate practitioners, conveyancing technicians and probate technicians – are being published today by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. Issuing its annual report for 2015 and business plan for 2016, the CLC said it is also to review its rule book in a bid to aid innovation in the market.

A barrister who was convicted of harassing his ex-partner with texts was last week suspended for three months by a bar tribunal for damaging the trust and confidence the public has in the profession. Peter Sefton was also sanctioned for failing to report both his conviction and subsequent six-month suspension by the Bar of Northern Ireland to the Bar Standards Board.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has outlined plans which would enable accountants to carry out all the reserved legal activities, including litigation and rights of audience. The ICAEW said its activities would be “restricted to the area of taxation”.