Legal Services Act

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board are set to launch a “legal services stakeholder network”, to give the public a direct say in how legal services are regulated, Legal Futures can reveal.

The Australian legal business consolidator Integrated Legal Holdings, one of the country’s (and world’s) two stock exchange-listed law firms, has resumed its acquisitions programme almost two years after its last merger.

The Bar’s regulator has blasted the Legal Services Board for not doing enough to avoid the risk of abuse by solicitors of lawyer-to-lawyer referrals – and warned that they may fall foul of the 2010 Bribery Act.

The Legal Services Board is to measure the working of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal against key performance indicators, a move described by the tribunal as “wholly inappropriate”.

All workers at law firms and chambers will be asked whether they are straight, gay or bisexual, about their parents’ educational background and what kind of school they attended as part of the Legal Services Board’s push to improve transparency about diversity in the legal profession.

Details of investors in alternative business structures that will be made public should include the beneficial owner but might exclude the names of people with a “significant influence” over the business, the Legal Services Board has proposed.

Half of charities have experienced a poorly drafted will from a will-writer, a new survey has revealed – but a third have also seen shoddy work from a solicitor. A survey of over 50 charities by Remember A Charity found unanimous support for regulation of the will-writing sector.

The recession has encouraged in-house lawyers to make more use of what they see as a new, business-minded Bar by instructing them directly, research has revealed. The report, commissioned by Hardwicke Chambers and conducted by Legal Futures Associate Jures, found greater expertise and better value for money than solicitors were also factors.

The Legal Services Board has unveiled plans to ‘mystery shop’ solicitors and will-writers as part of its research into the market – and is looking for a panel of both to assess the quality of what is produced.

A decision by the Legal Services Board (LSB) on whether will-writing should become a regulated activity will not be made until 2012, it emerged today. The LSB’s draft business plan 2011/12, published today for consultation, revealed that the board is also considering what it calls a “deep dive” investigation of conveyancing.