Legal Executives

New rules which clearly limit the influence the Law Society can have on the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and the Bar Council on the Bar Standards Board, have been published.

A barrister who spent six years fruitlessly trying to obtain a pupillage has instead become an immigration practitioner as the head of her own firm, overseen by CILEx Regulation.

The frontline regulators are making “very good progress” in improving price transparency, the Legal Services Board has said – but its consumer panel was far less impressed.

When small businesses believe they can trust the transparency of legal providers on fees, they are twice as likely to seek the advice of lawyers, according to the Legal Services Board.

The Legal Services Board is to impose reform that will end the “different treatment” for accountancy regulators which also oversee legal services.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives is set to become the sixth body allowed to license alternative business structures after its application was approved by the Lord Chancellor.

The Legal Services Board has approved an application by CILEx Regulation to license alternative business structures, which will now go to the Lord Chancellor for a final decision. If successful, the regulator of chartered legal executives will become the sixth ABS licensing authority.

CILEx Regulation has moved to reassure the Lord Chief Justice over his concerns about its application to license alternative business structures. The regulator of chartered legal executives said that it would only look to regulate firms “that are relatively low risk and straightforward”.

Dame Elizabeth Filkin, a former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, has become one of four lay members appointed to the new Chartered Institute of Legal Executives group board. The move comes as CILEx introduces a group structure with three companies

If the Legal Services Board is serious about promoting access to justice it must end its silence on the legal aid cuts, lawyers’ organisations have said. The Bar Council accused the oversight regulator of acting like “another department of government” by refusing to comment.