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01 May 2024
Issue: 8069 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Technology , Artificial intelligence
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Regulators told to actively promote tech

Regulators need to ‘actively’ encourage lawtech and innovation, including artificial intelligence (AI), the Legal Services Board (LSB) has said

In a letter to technology minister Michelle Donelan and Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk this week, it set out its commitment to AI, including engaging with regulators ‘to understand their capacity and capabilities in relation to the regulation of the use of AI’ and seeking to foster collaboration on the sharing of best practice.

Its paper ‘Guidance on promoting technology and innovation to improve access to legal services’, issued last week, sets three outcomes for the legal regulators.

First, regulation should enable the use of technology and innovation to improve access and address unmet legal need. Second, it should balance the benefits and risks, opportunities and costs of technology in the interests of the public. Third, it should ‘actively’ foster an environment that is open to technology providers and innovators.

LSB chair Alan Kershaw said: ‘We now expect the regulators to embrace our ambition and move with appropriate pace.’

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
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