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14 January 2026
Issue: 8145 / Categories: Legal News , Regulatory , Legal services
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CEO appointed at legal super-regulator

Richard Orpin has been appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the Legal Services Board (LSB), which oversees all nine legal regulators

Orpin, who joined the LSB in 2023, was appointed interim CEO in July 2025 when Craig Westwood left the post. He previously worked in policy roles at Ofcom and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, covering telecoms, postal services, media and domestic gambling policy.

Orpin said he aimed to strengthen standards and support ‘innovation that widens access to legal services’.

Law Society president Mark Evans said: ‘Following the oversight regulator’s independent reviews of the Axiom Ince and SSB Group collapses, the LSB has an important role to play into helping to restore consumer and solicitors’ trust and confidence in the Solicitors Regulation Authority.’

An LSB-commissioned review criticised the solicitors’ regulator last year for failing to protect consumers, the public interest and professional standards in connection with the collapsed firms.

Issue: 8145 / Categories: Legal News , Regulatory , Legal services
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys senior leadership appointments

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths strengthens London Construction and Engineering practice with two strategic senior hires

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins announces strategic hire to deepen skills base in the social business sector

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The High Court has upheld a rare successful serious-irregularity challenge after an arbitrator relied on an implied term neither party had advanced
Thirty years after The Future of Law shook a profession still using fax machines, its central forecast looks increasingly less like prophecy and more like description
More than 100 teams from the legal and financial services sectors competed in five sports at the 51st Law Society RFC Festival of Sport earlier this month
Part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, rather than the sole cause, the Supreme Court has held in Augustine v Data Cars
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