Rees: New rights good for diversity in profession
The first chartered legal executive (CLE) with standalone litigation practice rights could be authorised in six weeks’ time, with around 2,300 expected to apply for them in the next 18 months, it has emerged.
The Legal Services Board (LSB) yesterday approved CILEx Regulation Ltd’s (CRL) application to uncouple the grant of litigation rights from advocacy rights.
CRL had been preparing one anyway but it became urgent following September’s Mazur ruling, which said non-authorised persons cannot conduct litigation under supervision.
Though the new breed of CLEs coming through the CILEX Professional Qualification gain practice rights automatically, existing CLEs need to add them after qualifying.
The LSB fast-tracked approval of the application and the decision notice said CRL estimated that 2,284 current chartered legal executives and new applicants would seek litigation practice rights within the next 18 months.
“CRL has explained that it expects the first application for uncoupled authorisation for the conduct of litigation to be ready for authorisation within six weeks of the LSB approval of this application.”
The regulator has reduced the time from receipt of an application until completion of the assessment from 11 weeks.
The LSB said that, in the wake of Mazur, there were “several instances” in CRL’s original proposals that were not clear about what CLEs could do before they were authorised. These have now been amended.
There will be separate rights for civil, family and criminal litigation. Those with two years of experience working in the area of litigation for which they are seeking practice rights can obtain the rights by undertaking a two-hour online assessment – comprising a client interview followed by assessment of a written piece of work – plus a 90-minute online exam consisting of 45 multiple choice questions.
Those without the two years of specific experience will need first to go through a part-time training course over 24-weeks. Both of these are delivered by ULaw (the University of Law).
There is also a portfolio route to the rights, detailing the applicant’s experience without the need to undergo the assessment, but CRL will be encouraging applicants to go through the ULaw route.
It said the portfolio route could be more difficult, depending on the breadth of candidates’ litigation experience, and required more regulatory resource to assess.
With around a third of forecast applicants likely to come from firms with large numbers of CLEs, CRL said it was exploring with ULaw the possibility of providing bespoke programmes for them outside of the planned assessment windows.
At the moment, the ULaw route is not available for those seeking criminal litigation rights and CRL said they were in talks to develop one.
CRL is increasing its resourcing to manage application prescreening and approval processes from one to four members of staff, with the potential to double this; if more is needed, it will bring in temporary staff.
The notice said: “The LSB recognises that the application raises the risk of capacity restraints due to potentially substantially increased numbers of applications for authorisation. However, we consider that CRL has given due consideration to this risk, and that the benefits to the regulatory objectives of CRL’s proposal outweigh that risk (as appropriately managed by CRL).
“We note that CRL is taking a proportionate and risk-based approach to meet the potential challenges in relation to dealing with a higher number of applications post Mazur. Importantly, we note that CRL is committed to ensuring that high quality and standards are maintained and has taken steps to enhance its ability to process applications in a timely manner.
“We note that this will ensure that the public interest is protected and that consumer trust in the competence of providers of reserved legal activities is maintained.”
CRL chair Jonathan Rees said he was pleased the LSB had given its approval so quickly, noting that a pre-Mazur consultation on decoupling the rights was supported by over 95% of respondents.
“We recognise the huge distress and uncertainty caused to many of our regulated community by the judgment.
“The introduction of standalone litigation practice rights will give all those affected the opportunity to practise litigation independently. This will help to increase diversity in the legal profession and provide consumers with increased choice.”
CILEX, the representative body for CLEs, added: “CILEX has been pushing for a swift decision on allowing Chartered Legal Executives to gain practice rights for litigation alone and we welcome the speed with which the Legal Services Board has moved.
“It removes a considerable barrier to gaining practice rights for members wishing to conduct litigation who do not need to carry out advocacy in their roles… There is more to do in response to Mazur but this is a very positive step.”
Details on applying for the rights can be found on the CRL website.
With all due respect, many of us (CLEs) have submitted applications for stand-alone litigation (subject to LSB approval) as instructed by both CILEX and CRL, and we have still not received even an acknowledgement. CRL is super slow.