Solicitors can now practise from unregulated firms, despite protests
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has given the green light to controversial plans to allow freelance solicitors and let regulated solicitors practise from unregulated firms—despite protestations by the Law Society that they put consumers at risk.
The Looking to the Future reforms, proposed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), were approved in full this week. Solicitors can now provide unreserved services while working from an unregulated organisation. Self-employed solicitors can provide reserved services without being authorised as an entity.
LSB chair, Dr Helen Phillips, acknowledged that there were ‘some potential risks’ but added that ‘when set against the potential benefits… these risks do not create compelling grounds for refusing the proposal.
‘In addition to likely benefits to access to justice, promoting competition and the public interest, we considered that there was some merit in the SRA's argument that these changes could be seen to increase consumer protection, given that many consumers already use unregulated providers and in doing so receive no regulatory protections.’
However, Law Society president Christina Blacklaws said the rule change was a ‘serious error’ that ‘sacrificed the best interests of the public’.
‘They have ignored unprecedented levels of opposition from consumer bodies, legal experts and the extensive evidence of the risks of deregulation of this kind in this market,’ she said.
‘The door is now open for practitioners to cut their costs by slashing essential client protections that until today have provided cast-iron reassurance for clients. A high street where different tiers of solicitor, with different levels of protections offer the same services to passers-by will make it more difficult for people who need legal advice to reach informed choices often at very traumatic moments in their lives, such as divorce and bereavement.’
The LSB received more than 130 unsolicited letters and emails about the reforms, the vast majority of which opposed the plans.
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