Legal Services Board

The Legal Services Board has given both the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board a clean bill of health in the way they enforce their rules.

The High Court has rejected a challenge from the ICAEW to the Lord Chancellor’s decision that its members should not be allowed to handle tax-related litigation, advocacy and legal instruments work

The Legal Services Board should focus on tackling sexual harassment in the workplace instead of pushing its agenda of ‘change for change’s sake’, the Law Society has said.

The Legal Services Board is on the hunt for its fourth chief executive in nine years after Neil Buckley decided to stand down after just over three years in the role.

The Legal Services Board has closed its investigation into the Law Society’s governance arrangements – which led to an unprecedented public censure last year – after a series of reforms.

The Law Society has said it is “deeply concerned” that new rules proposed by the Legal Services Board could largely prevent it from either lobbying or criticising the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The position of the smaller legal regulators has been thrust into the spotlight, with the chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel suggesting that one may be at risk of losing its right to regulate.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is “not sufficiently transparent” in explaining its decisions at board level, the Legal Services Board has said, while ticking off other regulators too.

The £30m that the Law Society levies on solicitors for its representative work is to be put under the microscope by the Legal Services Board next year.

The Bar could be “sleep walking into a nightmare scenario” where new rules mean it has no involvement with its regulator, the incoming chairman of the Bar Council has warned.