State Bar of California seeking public comments on regulatory reforms

The State Bar of California is seeking public comment on proposals for regulatory reform put forward by the Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services. The task force was set up to improve access to justice through regulatory reform, following a report in 2018 that suggested that regulation was limiting innovations which could…

LSB updates governance rules to “enhance regulatory independence”

A new set of rules have been released by the Legal Services Board (LSB), which aim to clarify the separation between representative bodies and their regulators. The internal governance rules (IGRs) have been published following a series of public consultations that first began in November 2017. The rules which were released by the oversight regulator…

Anti-Money Laundering and Lawyer Regulation: The Response of the Professions

Abstract The extension of anti-money laundering (AML) controls to lawyers has been a controversial topic since the early 2000s. The legal professions facing these measures have adopted differentiated strategies of response, three examples of which are examined and contrasted in this paper. In the US, the legal profession vocally objected to the measures and has been able to deflect…

ICLR 2019: Regulating in Uncomfortable Spaces

The following content has been provided by the panel presenting on this topic during the afternoon on Day 1 of ICLR 2019. Synopsis As recent events have shown, regulating the conduct of lawyers who serve as elected politicians or in public office, as well as those who provide legal services to others in public office,…

Research on client care letters

Research by Optimisa commissioned by the legal regulators in England and Wales finds that client care letters – letters sent to clients to explain the lawyer-client relationship when the lawyer is first instructed – are not sufficiently effective. The research identifies principles to help legal services providers better communicate with their clients. These principles are…

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