Regulation
BSB eyes loosening constraints on design of both BPTC and pupillages
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.
Put duty on all legal services regulators to promote economic growth, says SRA
All the legal services regulators should under a new duty to “have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth”, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. They should also appoint small business champions.
Court Appeal overturns ruling that law firm wrongly paid out £2.3m from client account
The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision that a Sussex law firm wrongly paid out £2.28m it had received from a group of investors in what turned out to be a doomed airport investment scheme.
First ABS attached to a barristers’ chambers launched in Liverpool
Liverpool-based 7 Harrington Street Chambers has launched what is believed to be the first alternative business structure attached to a barristers’ chambers. It opened for business last week, with three barristers and 7HS practice director as its directors.
LSB to call on regulators to make law firms and chambers “accountable” over diversity
Regulators need to do more with the diversity data they now collect in order to drive improvements in recruitment and particularly progression and retention within the profession, the Legal Services Board will shortly say.
SRA apologies for training contract numbers “confusion”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has apologised for releasing information that made it appear as if there had been a massive rise in training places last year – when in fact the number has stayed static.
Separate business rule reform will “unlock” competition and innovation in legal market
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has given “qualified support” to plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to rewrite the separate business rule. The panel said the existing rule had “fallen into disrepute”.
Nobody gets what they want as BSB “subverting the rules” case heads back to Visitors
Appeal judges have decided that a disciplinary case in which they found a Bar Standards Board official responsible for “subverting the rules” on disclosure should return to the Visitors to the Inns of Court.
SBR changes could cause “irreparable damage” to solicitor brand, warn City lawyers
Plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to relax the separate business rule could cause “irreparable damage” to the solicitor brand and “drive significant numbers of the profession” into the unregulated sector, the City of London Law Society has warned.
Supreme Court to hear QASA appeal – but rejects claim of threat to advocate independence
The barristers challenging the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates have today been granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. The hearing is listed for March.
Blog
The cost of systemic failure and childbirth injuries
Recent reports show that the NHS has paid almost £3.5bn in medical claims around childbirth injuries over the past six years.
Mazur: when regulators make simple things complicated
What the last six months have shown is that supervision cannot be treated as a background compliance obligation quietly managed somewhere in a firm’s operational processes.
How unstoppable AI is reshaping UK legal practice
At a time when most technology innovation still flows from the US and China, UK lawtech is attracting growing international attention and capital.
