Legal Executives

Regulation accounts for between 15% and 23% of the costs of law firms, money they would generally not bother spending if they were not required to, an indicative study by the Legal Services Board has found. However, the opposite was the case for lawyers practising as individuals.

Legal apprenticeships funded by the government are on course to start next September, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers have confirmed.

Barristers’ call for a review of the standards of solicitor-advocates’ work in family cases has been received coolly by regulators, who have told Legal Futures they have seen no evidence of the kinds of problems that would justify an investigation.

Legal regulators have called on the government to make a series of changes to the Legal Services Act that will make it easier to approve and regulate alternative business structures. The move is part of the first output from joint work being done by all of the legal regulators to identify opportunities for deregulation.

The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is finally set to go ahead after the Supreme Court ruled that it was “the only way” to protect all members of the public involved in criminal proceedings “at an upper level”. But it has been claimed that the decision will make it harder for similar schemes to be introduced for other areas of law.

The Government Legal Service has decided to open its lawyer job vacancies to fellows of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives for the first time. The first job being advertised is a £53,196 position as lawyer at HM Revenue & Customs.

CILEx Regulation – the regulatory arm of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives – is searching for a new chairman after the man who was due to take over last week decided against doing so. In February, CILEx announced that Quinton Quayle, a former British ambassador to Thailand, had been appointed.

Solicitors, barristers and legal executives have been told by their professional bodies to be polite and non-judgemental when dealing with litigants in person (LiPs), and take “extra care to avoid using inflammatory words or phrases”.

Alan Kershaw, chair of CILEx Regulation, has said lawyers should be regulated “by competence, not by title” and urged the different branches of the profession not to give up on common training.

There has been a massive increase in the number of lawyers disciplined by their professional bodies for breaking the rules on money laundering, a Treasury report has found.

Jenner & Block has not become the first US law firm licensed as an alternative business structure, it has emerged – rather it was an error by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Plus, call for QC to be open for all, and new members of LeO’s board.

A report for the Bar Council on the future of criminal justice and advocacy has recommended that legal executives are kept out of the Crown Courts, while solicitors should only be granted rights of audience if they have undergone the same level of training as barristers.

A member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives who specialises in conveyancing has become the first to receive independent practice rights. A probate specialist and a legal executive who runs his own immigration firm were also granted independent rights.

The six-month time limit for clients to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is to be doubled from this summer, it has announced. The new time limit, which takes effect from 9 July, runs from the date of receiving a final response from the lawyer.

Many lawyers, particularly solicitors and barristers, complain about their practising certificate (PC) fees, but there are high levels of ignorance about what they are paying for, a major cost of regulation survey has found.