Just days after the Legal Services Board (LSB) chairman delivered a scathing speech accusing the Law Society of being entirely self-interested, the representative body has been stripped of its power to appoint the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new chair, in a move designed to give the regulator greater independence.
Announced on Wednesday (30 April), the LSB has amended its internal governance rules following a consultation period that began in February. All future appointments or reappointments to the boards of the front line regulators are now the responsibility of the profession’s regulatory rather than the representative arms, in contrast with a checks and balances approach originally envisaged by the Legal Services Act 2007.
