Legal Services Board
SRA’s approach to licensing ABSs “damaging competition, consumers and access to justice”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s approach to licensing non-traditional businesses as alternative business structures is “impacting competition, access to justice and negatively affecting consumers”, the Legal Services Board has claimed.
Lawyers and consumers at odds over control of appointments to the SRA
The Law Society found itself at loggerheads with the Legal Services Consumer Panel last week after the pair placed themselves on opposite sides of the debate over who should run the process of choosing the chairman and board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
QASA challenge on its last legs
The legal challenge to the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is nearly at an end after the Court of Appeal refused permission to appeal the High Court decision that rejected it.
Sir Michael Pitt to be new LSB chairman
Senior civil servant Sir Michael Pitt will take over from David Edmonds as chairman of the Legal Services Board (LSB), it has been announced. Mr Pitt has no legal background and was chief executive of the Planning Inspectorate for three years from March 2011.
Edmonds urges Law Society and Bar Council to accept change in interests of their members
The attitude of “some in positions of immense responsibility” in the legal profession represents a “direct threat” to an innovative future for legal services, the chairman of the Legal Services Board has claimed.
LSB presses on with statutory guidance forcing regulators to liberalise education and training
Statutory guidance that requires legal regulators to move away from assuming would-be lawyers have to spend a certain amount of time training before they qualify was published yesterday by the Legal Services Board.
CLC targets wider brief as property sector regulator
The Council for Licensed Conveyancers wants the power to regulate lawyers other than licensed conveyancers, as part of a strategy targeted at expanding its role within the property sector.
LSB and Law Society on new collision course over SRA appointments
The Legal Services Board is heading for another confrontation with the Law Society after proposing to take away its responsibility for appointing the chairman and board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
LSB to impose controversial lay chair requirement on regulators
The frontline regulators will be required to have lay chairs in future after the Legal Services Board (LSB) pressed ahead with its controversial change to the internal governance rules.
QASA claimants bid to fight on to Court of Appeal
The legal challenge to the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is not yet dead after it emerged that the claimants have gone to the Court of Appeal to seek permission to appeal.
Blog
Is competition in the legal sector stifling innovation?
As the legal sector’s competitive landscape continues to evolve, Nobel laureates remind us that innovation is not inevitable,and that competition may not always be an incentive to innovate.
What high-performing consumer claims firms get right
Recurring concerns about parts of the volume claims sector show that the gap between well-run firms and those struggling to manage volume effectively is widening.
The SRA’s 2025 AML report: What law firms need to know
The SRA has released its 2024-25 anti-money laundering report and the scale of supervision is striking – it carried out 935 proactive engagements in the year to 5 April 2025.
