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03 April 2008 / Simon Young
Issue: 7315 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Profession , Employment
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All change ahead

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Practitioners need to prepare for a new legal landscape, says Simon Young

In November last year the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) issued a consultation paper on the new forms of practice and regulation which will flow from the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA 2007). Broadly these are legal disciplinary practices (LDPs) which are expected to start in the spring of 2009 and alternative business structures (ABSs) which will not be with us until 2011 or 2012. Although that particular consultation closed in December last year, it spawned eight further SRA consultations, which will all impact on the future of our profession.

One of the significant responses submitted to the SRA in respect of its initial consultation came from the ’s Legal Services Policy Institute, led by Professor Stephen Mayson and this article examines some of the issues canvassed in the institute’s response.

The initial consultation proposed a structural shift in regulatory emphasis from the regulation of individuals to the regulation of the entities within which those individuals practise.

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