Legal Services Act

Local government lawyers have obtained a QC’s opinion in a dispute with the Solicitors Regulation Authority over their ability to provide reserved legal activities to external bodies and individuals, it has emerged. The move follows complaints that the SRA was forcing councils to set up ABSs.

The Legal Services Board has said it expects the cost of regulating lawyers to be “going down, not up” as it approved a minor increase in the cost of practising for barristers. It said barristers should be given “much greater information” about how their money is spent.

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 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.

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.

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”.

A leading criminal defence set that set up an alternative business structure last year has launched a military law practice that has clients being investigated by the Ministry of Defence-funded Iraq Historic Allegations Team.

The Legal Services Board has set out plans allowing it to study in more detail spending by approved regulators, such as the Law Society and Bar Council, before it approves their practising fees. The LSB warned in November of a “potentially high-profile and contentious” dispute with Chancery Lane over the use of fees.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has accused banks, insurance companies and others of discriminating against accountants providing probate services, in favour of solicitors. It said various organisations “appeared not to have caught up with the consequences of the Legal Services Act”.

Law firms no longer need to carry out reserved activities in order to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority – but the regulator has offered assurances that it will not seek to bring the currently unregulated into its net as a form of quasi-accreditation.