Last week the Legal Services Act became law. This introduces some fundamental changes to the regulation of lawyers as well as changing the legal profession itself, by allowing non-lawyers to become members of law firms. This aspect of the legislation was dubbed ‘Tesco Law’ when the Bill was going through Parliament and the new “Alternative Business Structures”, as they are called, will see new ways of legal services being delivered and, in time perhaps, law firms floating on the Stock Exchange.
At ContractStore we have been ahead of the game for some time: ContractStore was launched a couple of years before the Legal Services Act was even drafted and our wide range of commercial contracts has allowed our customers to obtain quality documents without the costs normally associated with the legal profession, a particular benefit for SME’s. With the new law in place we expect our tailored services will see more activity. And we are already associated with other innovative professionals, vLegal among others, with whom we will continue to offer cost effective and responsive legal solutions for business while always maintaining high standards.
Key elements of the new law include:
A new Legal Services Board (LSB) to act as an independent and publicly accountable regulator with the power to enforce high standards in the legal sector, replacing the maze of regulators with overlapping powers. The chair of the Board will be a non-lawyer.
A single and fully independent Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) to remove complaints handling from the legal professions and ensure consumer confidence.
Alternative Business Structures (ABS) that will enable consumers to obtain services from one business entity that brings together lawyers and non-lawyers, (in theory) increasing competitiveness and improving services. The Act will also allow legal services firms to have up to 25 per non-lawyer partners in the near future, before the full ABS regulatory structure is implemented, and will allow different kinds of lawyers to form firms together in the near future.
