Legal Services Act

High street solicitors may soon become a thing of the past if steps are not taken to curb and regulate the predatory marketing of national organisations keen to move into the legal sector next year, the Lawyers Defence Group has warned. It spoke out in the wake of an announcement by the Co-operative Group that it intends to launch a nine-week campaign promoting its legal services to shoppers in its nationwide chain of 3,000 supermarkets.

Scottish solicitors have voted against the planned introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs), it was announced today. Law Society of Scotland members voted 3:2 that only solicitors should own law firms, while a compromise that solicitors should be in the majority of owners was defeated, despite support from the floor at today’s reconvened SGM.

As chair of the new Legal Services Consumer Panel, Dr Dianne Hayter challenges the profession’s orthodoxy with strong views on how the legal landscape should develop. Neil Rose finds that she also uses a different kind of language.

With alternative business structures now 18 months away, Neil Rose looks at how the recommendations of the Jackson report could be overtaken in the new legal services environment. In particular, what might claims management companies, third-party funders and class action specialists do?

ILEX Professional Standards (IPS) is to seek conveyancing and criminal advocacy and litigation rights for legal executives, it has emerged. It forms part of IPS’s plan to become a regulator of alternative business structures.

Legal Futures Editor Neil Rose recently edited ‘Legal Efficiency’, a supplement published by The Times covering a range of key issues facing the profession as it moves into a new era. This is his article on the likely implications of alternative business structures

The row about introducing alternative business structures in Scotland took a fresh turn this week after members of the Law Society of Scotland voted very narrowly to support the current policy in favour of them.

The Legal Services Board is making contingency plans to regulate alternative business structures itself if none of the current approved regulators are up to the task, it has emerged. The LSB’s 2010/11 business plan, published today, says that it will scope out the requirements for direct licensing during the summer.

The Legal Services Board has delayed a decision on whether the civil standard of proof should apply to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new powers to publicly rebuke and fine solicitors because of concerns raised by the Law Society and Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has overcome a raft of concerns from the Legal Services Board to win approval for the new Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme. Some 26% of new solicitors in 2009 were either former barristers or international lawyers.