Individual and business consumers will play a key role in shaping the future regulation of lawyers.
In a first for the legal profession, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has appointed an independent eight-member consumer panel to help shape the regulatory framework of lawyers.
The Consumer Panel, which will be chaired by Dr Dianne Hayter, the former vice-chair of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, will operate independently of the LSB and will work to develop a sharper focus on consumer interests. It will publish its advice. If the LSB chooses to ignore this advice, it will be required to justify its decision in a published written statement.
Hayter, who was appointed to her post in July, said the panel would assess proposals “from the standpoint of users of legal services”.
The establishment of the Panel is a statutory requirement of the Legal Services Act 2007.
The experience of Panel members covers trading standards, housing, business advice, employment law, health care, policing and refugee policy.
Panel appointees include: Carol Brady, a director at the Local Better Regulation Office; Graham Corbett, senior national officer at the Commercial Services Union; Paul Munden, who has held senior board posts at Business Link; and Karin Woodley, the former chief executive of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.
