Legal Services Act

QualitySolicitors’ tie-up with WHSmith goes live next week, with “Legal Access Points” going in 130 stores in the first wave, we can reveal – along with first sight of how they will look. Dozens more law firms are set to join the network this autumn, hand in hand with their LAPs in local branches of the retailer.

The Institute of Legal Executives is the first approved regulator to receive a clean bill of health for its internal governance arrangements for 2011. The Legal Services Board is currently reviewing the regulatory independence certificates submitted by each approved regulator where there is also a linked representative body. There is no news yet on either the Law Society or Bar Council’s certificates.

Alternative business structures (ABSs) could be good news for women, black and minority ethnic, and disabled barristers, the Bar Standards Board has predicted, after approving rules that will allow barristers to become partners and owners of ABSs.

The Legal Services Board (LSB), Law Society and Bar Council have thrown their weight behind a best practice code aimed at stamping out bias in granting internships and improving social mobility for disadvantaged students. Meanwhile, LSB chairman David Edmonds has criticised the idea of restricting access to training to deal with the oversupply of bar students.

The turnover of claims management companies (CMC) soared by 57% to £581m over the past year, despite a ten-fold increase in the number of businesses having their authorisation cancelled, their regulator has reported.

Some lawyers and financial advisers may be exploiting bereaved families by overcharging for probate, over-50s organisation Saga has suggested – pointing consumers to its own, cheaper, legal services arm instead. It says it will charge 1% of the estate, compared to up to 5% by other providers.

The Society of Will Writers has become the second trade body to announce its bid to regulate the profession if required. After the Legal Services Consumer Panel said will-writing should be regulated, the society said a system could be introduced “very quickly and cheaply with the profession bearing the bulk of the cost”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will not be able to start regulating alternative business structures on 6 October, Legal Futures can reveal. Further, the question of whether prospective non-lawyer investors in ABSs will have to reveal all convictions, even if they are spent, remains unresolved and could stop the SRA licensing ABSs with external ownership.

The confused system of regulation for legal services risks leaving consumers without protection when things go wrong, especially with unregulated businesses “masquerading as traditional law firms, branded with more legal wigs and gowns than you can shake a quill pen at”, the Legal Ombudsman has warned.

The Institute of Professional Willwriters (IPW) will apply to become a regulator of will-writing services should the Legal Services Board decide to make it a reserved activity, it has confirmed. It called on the board and the government “to take prompt action to implement the recommendations” of today’s consumer panel report.

The Legal Services Board today launched its first statutory investigation into whether to extend the scope of regulation, after its consumer panel recommended making will-writing a reserved activity. It goes further, however, by looking at what measures are required to protect consumers in the probate and estate administration markets as well,

Mid-market law firms are responding cautiously to the changing legal services market, with just 14% saying they are actively considering external investment and 21% anticipating a merger or major restructuring in the next year, according to new research.

Solicitors who offer financial services and plan to become alternative business structures could be forced out of the market by plans to plug a gap in consumer protection created by the Legal Services Act, the Financial Services Authority has admitted.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has already received “strong interest” in ABS investment from abroad and from non-English law firms that want to use the structure, it has revealed. They includes one of China’s largest law firms.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority this month moved to parity between solicitor and lay ordinary members, ahead of introducing a lay majority in two years’ time. Shamit Saggar, the former chairman of the Legal Complaints Service, joined the board this month as part of a deal with the Legal Services Board.