Tag Archives: ABSs

Legal services regulation review

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First, my apologies to followers who have been waiting for almost a year for another ‘occasional’ thought.  I won’t burden you with the personal and professional reasons for the lull!

I confess to being rather surprised when the Ministry of Justice announced that it was undertaking a comprehensive review of the framework for legal services regulation.  It is not that long since the Clementi Review (although I suppose that if a week is a long time in politics, nine years could be a very long time in legal services).  But we are still in the implementation phase of the Legal Services Act, and just shy of two years since the arrival of alternative business structures.  Surely too early?

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ABS one year on: rushing headlong, slowly

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Here we are, then, one year into alternative business structures (ABSs). For those who were expecting a revolution, the start to ABSs has been, well, muted. But was revolution ever a reasonable expectation? The statutory timetable envisages a licensing process that could take up to nine months. The SRA has also ensured that the timetable doesn’t start to run with the submission of a stage 1 application, so its nine-month timeline hasn’t been reached yet. The question is: does 36 ABS licences (ignoring the multiple licences issued to Irwin Mitchell) in the first year represent a good outcome, slow take-up by the market, or slow processing by the regulators? Has the whole thing – as many opponents of ABS would like us to believe – been a damp squib, an unnecessary and expensive addition to the regulatory terrain?

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External ownership and the forked tongue of ethics

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Nine US general counsel have come to the conclusion, reported in Legal Futures, that there is no need for external ownership of law firms and “that the inevitable chipping away at the profession’s professionalism ultimately will do a disservice not just to the business clients we serve, but to all clients who seek the trusted and confidential advice of counsel”.

I would not presume to disagree with their judgement about their own clients. But I would seriously beg to differ with the general sentiment implicit in the conclusion that ‘non-lawyer’ (I still hate that expression) ownership will necessarily erode professionalism, undermine lawyer-client relationships, compromise confidentiality, and encourage unethical, profit-maximising behaviour. Continue reading →