Regulation

The Law Society has spoken out against government plans to impose on the Solicitors Regulation Authority a duty to promote economic growth, which it said threatened the independence of the profession.

The House of Lords has given the Council for Licensed Conveyancers the power to issue standalone licences for people to conduct reserved probate work without them having to become licensed conveyancers first.

A solicitor with an “unblemished” record stretching back many years has failed in his attempt to appeal a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal decision that found him guilty of dishonesty. Mr Justice Holman said it was a “great personal and professional tragedy”.

In what is believed to be the first appeal against a sanction imposed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has revoked the decision to rebuke a solicitor and his firm over alleged failures to nominate compliance officers in time and disclose a suitability issue.

The Legal Services Board should not put the needs of business users of the courts before the “most vulnerable and disempowered”, the Bar Standards Board has argued.

The Law Society has told the Legal Ombudsman that solicitors’ practising certificate fees should not be used for ‘thought leadership’ exercises that extend beyond legal services.

Unnecessary restrictions on in-house lawyers could “impose costs and red tape, frustrate innovation and adversely affect access to justice”, the Legal Services Board has argued.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has criticised “quasi-regulatory” conveyancing schemes launched by the Law Society which could be seen as “duplicating” the CLC’s work.

The profession’s regulators are not doing enough to understand the consumers of lawyers’ services, the Legal Services Board has warned. But it said there has been progress since the first assessment in 2012/13.

The Bar Standards Board has said that there is no need for the Bar Professional Training Course to be delivered as “one, integrated course”, and is also set to give chambers and employers more freedom to design pupillages.