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15 July 2010 / Samantha Barrass
Issue: 7426 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Legal big bang

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Expect fireworks as major changes to legal services start to take off, says Samantha Barrass

The world of legal services is in the midst of a period of unprecedented change. There are various interlocking themes which together amount to a legal big bang. These are the current introduction of entity based regulation; the introduction on 6 October 2011 of both outcomes focused regulation (and with it a new Code of Conduct) and alternative business structures (ABS) which will enable lawyers and non-lawyers to share the management and control of a business which provides reserved legal services to the public; and the creation of the SRA Corporate Regulation Group to enhance our relationship with the major firms in the corporate sector.

Outcomes focused regulation (OFR) amounts to a shift from prescriptive rigid rules to flexible outcomes focused requirements. The way the legal services market is evolving demands that regulation should focus more on the quality of clients’ experience—and less on prescribing the approach that firms should take. OFR will enable firms to be far more flexible

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Sponsored by
Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS
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NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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