Legal Executives

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 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.

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.

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.

Quinton Quayle, a former British ambassador to Thailand, has been appointed chair of ILEX Professional Standards. Meanwhile, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has announced that Anna Bradley is stepping down as chair after five years.

There has been strong interest from new and existing law firms in being overseen by the regulatory arm of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx), it said yesterday, with over 50 enquiries.

Four criminal law barristers have appealed to the Supreme Court in their judicial review of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) – despite a costs bill which already totals £215,000, Legal Futures can reveal.

The Bar Standards Board has turned to the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives to provide training to members of staff without legal qualifications. Meanwhile, ILEX Professional Standards – CILEx’s regulatory arm – is on the hunt for a new chief executive.

ILEX Professional Standards (IPS) has applied to the Legal Services Board (LSB) to raise the maximum fines limit for chartered legal executives from the current £3,000 to a top level of £50m.

Chartered legal executives will be able to set up their own law firms in the New Year – a move that ILEX Professional Standards said would for the first time also give solicitors’ firms a choice of regulator, and that the government said would help consumers access legal services.

The House of Lords yesterday gave the final go-ahead for chartered legal executives and others with appropriate expertise to offer probate and conveyancing services without the supervision of solicitors.

The Court of Appeal today comprehensively dismissed four criminal law barristers’ challenge to the Legal Services Board’s approval of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. With the Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, giving the lead judgment, the court found that the scheme is lawful.

Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executors (CILEx) could be carrying out litigation without supervision by solicitors from the end of November, it has emerged.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) has won the approval of the House of Commons to grant rights to conduct reserved probate and conveyancing work.

The Legal Services Board is to hire an external accountant to examine how the Law Society and other regulators spend money raised through compulsory practising certificate fees.