Legal Services Board
LSB to press ahead with continuing competence regime
The Legal Services Board is pushing ahead with plans to introduce continuing competence checks for lawyers. This could include feedback from consumers, judges and peers, assurance visits or revalidation.
New practising fee rules will allow “more meaningful debate”
The Legal Services Board has introduced new rules to ensure legal regulators explain more clearly how they spend the money they raise through the compulsory levies on lawyers.
SRA and CLC given clean bill of regulatory health
The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Council for Licensed Conveyancers have been given a clean bill of health by the Legal Services Board in its latest assessment of regulators’ performance.
CMA urges review of legal services regulation
The case for wholesale reform of the way legal services are regulated is even stronger than it was four years ago when the Competition & Markets Authority last recommended it, the watchdog said today.
LSB eyes legal expenses insurance expansion and “approved” products
The LSB has sketched out a future where most households have a legal expenses insurance policy to access a wide range of legal services, and there are approved ‘simple legal products’ in the market.
Legal Ombudsman dilemma: Increase funding or find an alternative
The decision on whether to approve a 19% increase in the Legal Ombudsman’s budget is likely to be “finely balanced”, with the possibility of having to find an alternative to it lurking in the background.
Legal Services Act a decade on: Much to celebrate but much to do
There is “much to celebrate” from the first decade of the Legal Services Act but the basic legal needs of many citizens are still not being met, the Legal Services Board said today.
First approval given for Legal Ombudsman’s in-year budget increase
The Legal Ombudsman’s first ever in-year call for supplementary budget, seeking an extra £344,000, has gone to the Lord Chancellor for approval after being given the green light by the Legal Services Board.
LSB approves new route to qualifying as a solicitor
The new way of qualifying as a solicitor, including passing a centralised, two-part examination, will go live from 1 September 2021 after the Legal Services Board approved the reforms.
Accountants ponder new push to regulate legal services
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales is considering a new push to regulate reserved legal activities, three years after its last attempt was knocked back.
Blog
The AI governance gap in law firms and why it matters now
A third of law firms are already using AI tools with no formal policy in place to govern how AI gets used, what data goes into it, or who’s accountable when something goes wrong.
Information isn’t oversight – lessons from the PM Law review
The PM Law review’s real findings perhaps point to a failure mode applying to any organisation sitting on scattered risk information.
AI can do the work but it cannot inherit the lawyer’s duty
What happens when lawyers delegate cognitive work to AI but remain personally responsible for judgements they may no longer have independently reasoned through?
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