The State Bar of California today informed the California Supreme Court that it is changing its interpretation of a statute to allow for greater transparency with respect to closed disciplinary complaints. The State Bar announced that it has changed its position with respect to the Business and Professions Code section 6086(1)(b)(2). This statute allows the…
The NOvA publishes updated guidelines for lawyers and firms on anti-money laundering
The new manual outlines tools to help lawyers and law firms comply with the obligations set out in the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act (Wwft). These include which lawyers are (not) subject to the Wwft, what services are subject to the Wwft and which fall under the so-called process exemption, what the customer…
The Law Society of New South Wales proposes new rules to modernise Law Society governance for the future
The Law society of New South Wales has proposed new rules to modernise the Law Society governance to help the body modernise. Guided by a recent membership online survey and advice from corporate governance experts Cameron Ralph Khoury, the Council identified four key areas to improve its effectiveness and agility in representing the profession. The…
The Legal Services Board of England and Wales consulted on experiences of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession
The LSB conducted qualitative research into legal professionals’ lived experiences of counter-inclusive practices. This is with the aim of informing future LSB research and policy activity on equality, diversity and inclusion. The research will also be shared amongst other regulators and professional bodies to better understand the barriers people face during their careers and to…
Solicitors Regulation Authority opens consultation on new indemnity scheme
The SRA is consulting on the arrangements and rules of an indemnity scheme that they run to provide future consumer protection for post six-year negligence. This follows a decision by the Board in September that an SRA-run indemnity scheme offered the most cost-effective and proportionate solution to providing appropriate consumer protection for post six-year claims….
Flattening the World of Legal Services? The Ethical and Liability Minefields of Offshoring Legal and Law-Related Services
This article examines offshore outsourcing of legal and law related services as the newest twist in the international market for legal services. We consider the impact of offshore outsourcing on the profession generally and analyse the ethical issues raised by offshore outsourcing, both as it exists today and as the practice may develop in the…
Making sense of professional enablers’ involvement in laundering organized crime proceeds and of their regulation
Money laundering has ascended the enforcement and criminological agenda in the course of this century, and has been accompanied by an increased focus on legal professionals as ‘enablers’ of crime. This article explores the dynamics of this enforcement, media and political agenda, and how the legal profession has responded in the UK and elsewhere, within…
German Regulator brings in Federal Lawyers’ Act (BRAO) reform
The BRAO reform came into effect on August 1st and will alter more laws than just the Federal Lawyers’ Act. The new BRAO no longer primarily focuses on the individual professional, but assumes that the professional training company is the central organizational form. these central organisations must take our organisational insurance. This means that the…
The Evolution of Professionalism as a Mode of Regulation: Evidence from the United States
Opinion is divided on how far and in what ways professionalism as a mode of regulation has evolved. To date, attention has focused on the impact of neoliberal political and economic ideologies that challenge the idea that professions should be trusted to regulate themselves. This article further examines the impact of these attacks on professionalism…
Designing Just Solutions at Scale: Lawyerless Legal Services and Evidence-Based Regulation
Around the world, billions of people lack access to justice, often because they cannot access help in resolving their justice issues. An important reason for this is that many access models rely centrally on lawyers, and such models simply cannot scale. Some jurisdictions allow lawyerless legal services. We offer a new framework for understanding lawyerless…