By Jonathan Goldsmith2021-01-07T11:35:00+00:00
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has launched a
consultation on its Draft strategy for legal services regulation and draft business plan 2021-22 , which will close on 5 February 2021.
Jonathan Goldsmith
We all know that one of the principal drivers behind the Legal Services Act 2007 was to ensure that the regulation of lawyers was no longer undertaken by lawyers.
But an unforeseen consequence was that regulation was taken away from democratic bodies like the Law Society (maybe imperfectly democratic, but democratic nevertheless, with elections for Council seats) and given to an overarching organisation whose members are appointed by the state.
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The Legal Services Board (LSB) has published annual reports on the performance of the eight legal services regulatory bodies.
Each organisation regulates different types of lawyers and carries out its responsibilities in different ways. Nevertheless, they have the same responsibilities under the Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act) and are assessed against the same 27 outcomes across five standards. The standards are: regulatory approach, authorisation, supervision, enforcement, and well-led: governance and leadership.
The performance of most of the regulatory bodies has improved since the last assessment in November 2019. Notably, the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have met all the outcomes required across all standards.
By John Hyde2020-12-22T12:06:00+00:00
These are often difficult times for the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It is implementing a whole new solicitor qualification; it is under renewed pressure from competition watchdogs to improve access to justice; and it has this year grappled with a new and often faulty system for practising certificate renewal. It has, like the rest of us, had to deal with the fallout from an overnight move to remote working. Indemnity insurance costs are rising, and the pressures on the compensation fund are acute.
Perhaps most challenging is the fact that it may need to reassess its entire approach to enforcement policy following the Ryan Beckwith court judgment, as well as absorb the scathing criticism of the £350,000 costs of bringing the prosecution.
By John Hyde2020-12-22T11:50:00+00:00
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has been given a glowing end-of-year report by its overseeing body, passing every test of how it carries out its responsibilities. In its annual report on the performance of the eight legal services regulatory bodies, the Legal Services Board assessed the SRA as having met all 27 of its targets.
Standards were met across the five areas of evaluation – regulatory approach, authorisation, supervision, enforcement and leadership. Of the other seven bodies assessed, only the Council for Licensed Conveyancers met its objectives across the board.
Such a faultless performance means the SRA has improved the areas identified as
With many of us still reeling from the last surprises of 2020, what better time to consider what next year might bring? Some trends are becoming clearer. Here is an eclectic choice of three from among the developments rushing towards us.
Jonathan Goldsmith
First, unregulated providers of legal services are going to be brought into some kind of regulation. That is hardly rocket science. It was one of the recommendations of the
reportover the summer by Professor Stephen Mayson into future regulation of the legal profession, and is now included in the recent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report called
Review of the legal services market study in England and Wales.