Legal Business

From a big bang to a whimper – infighting and calls for reform of regulatory framework

legal-business-default

Caroline Hill and Sarah Downey assess the agendas in the MoJ’s review of regulation

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)’s decision to conduct a review of the profession’s regulatory landscape comes just a little over a year since the landmark Legal Services Act (LSA) came fully into force. The irony is that barely has the radical reform been enacted that was supposed to sort out fundamental problems with professional standards and all parties seemingly now believes it’s time to once again go back to the drawing board.

Since justice minister Helen Grant announced in June that the government would look at ‘what could be done to simplify the regulatory framework and reduce unnecessary burdens on the legal sector’, the MoJ has received submissions from the City of London Law Society (CLLS), the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Law Society, the Legal Services Board (LSB), the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP), the Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board (BSB).