header-logo header-logo

Regulation matters: Time for change

02 July 2020 / John Gould
Issue: 7893 / Categories: Opinion , Profession , Regulatory
printer mail-detail
23518
John Gould applauds Professor Mayson for his attempt to detangle the regulation of title & the regulation of activity

Professor Stephen Mayson has just published his report ‘Reforming Legal Services—Regulation beyond the Echo Chambers’. It is a prodigious piece of work. Professor Mayson has worked long and hard and consulted far and wide, to produce what is probably the most comprehensive and reliable review of legal regulation in England and Wales ever undertaken.

There should be a hunger for reform, but perhaps those responsible to deliver change have no appetite at all to do so. This is not just about other preoccupations, although we are in a time of other preoccupations, it is about believing that making the effort to change and pursuing a long overdue coherent vision for legal services is worth the trouble. Dealing with lawyers is almost always trouble—perhaps because that’s their business.

In his report, Professor Mayson is much too generous about the Byzantine structures which have accumulated before and after the

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll