Legal Services Act

The Lord Chief Justice has spoken out against licensed conveyancers being granted rights to conduct litigation and advocacy. Lord Judge said they are areas of work which lie outside the proper sphere of activity of a licensed conveyancer and he could see no strong public interest in giving them those rights.

The Solicitor Sole Practitioners Group has backed away from its threat to call a special general meeting and postal vote of the profession to gauge support for alternative business structures (ABSs). Meanwhile, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has refuted suggestions that it shifted position on how it will regulate ABSs ahead of this week’s Law Society vote.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has identified its first vexatious complainant, it emerged last night – but it is a lawyer, not a member of the public. It has also appointed former Financial Services Ombudsman Walter Merricks to adjudicate on complaints over LeO’s own service.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has compromised on aspects of its application to become an alternative business structure regulator, it emerged last night. Agreement was reached between the society and its regulatory arm on various changes to the application which the SRA’s board agreed last week.

The Law Society council has today approved the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s application to become a regulator of alternative business structures. It means the SRA should be ready to start taking applications from prospective ABSs from 6 August.

The Solicitor Sole Practitioners Group could decide tomorrow whether to seek a special general meeting of the Law Society that would authorise a profession-wide poll on solicitors’ opposition to alternative business structures.

Alternative business structures (ABSs) will pay less to practise than traditional law firms, under proposals released by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. A consultation on the fees structure for ABSs recommends that they should not have to contribute to the Law Society’s representative activities, as law firms do.

Regulators of alternative business structures could expose consumers to risk if they demand an overly high standard of proof in disciplinary hearings, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has warned. Meanwhile, the Bar Standards Board is to consider switching to a civil standard of proof.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has shown a lack of understanding and judgement, and an unwillingness to listen to the approved regulators, the Bar Council has claimed. The Bar Council also expressed surprise at plans to increase LSB staff costs at a time of public sector cuts – saying it should take a “Big Society” approach to its work – and also questioned whether the board is overextending its remit.

A former major in the Army has launched a brokerage for alternative business structures, bidding to put law firms together with private equity investors. He predicts that it will be commoditised practices run along corporate lines that will most likely attract external investment.

City firms, conveyancers and other sectors of the legal profession could seek their own sector-specific regulation if the Law Society fails to approve the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s application to become an alternative business structures regulator, SRA chairman Charles Plant warned today.

New consumer research from the Solicitors Regulation Authority has strengthened the case for stringent controls of law firms and alternative business structures which seek to hive off unreserved legal work to an unregulated business.

MPs today called on insurers to be much more transparent with policyholders about the “merry-go-round” of referral fees in their motor business – and for the government to step in if the industry fails to take action by the end of next year.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ bid to license alternative business structures could allow firms to dodge regulation of their unreserved legal work, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has warned.

The first crack in the wall of American opposition to non-lawyer ownership of law firms has come in a bill laid before the North Carolina Senate. The bill would allow minority (up to 49%) non-lawyer ownership of legal practices.