Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey has unveiled Bill 161, which is designed to both implement Legal Aid Services Act, as well as amending the Law Society Act. The act is designed to ease the regulatory burden, as well as creating some accountability from lawyers. Some of the proposed changes include: raising maximum fines for lawyers to…
ABA’s Center for Innovation calls for innovation in lawyer regulation
A report released by the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center for Innovation has called for U.S. jurisdictions to consider new approaches to regulation to increase access to justice. The recommendations are under review by the ABA House of delegates, where if approved they will be passed as a resolution, supporting the revision of existing structures….
ABA releases report on why women are leaving big law
A new survey released by the American Bar Association and ALM Intelligence is addressing why women are leaving big law. The Walking Out The Door: The Facts, Figures, and Future of Experienced Women Lawyers in Private Practice study is part of an ABA initiative launched by former-President Hilarie Bass. Over the past decades, women have made up roughly 45-50%…
ABA techreport shows how lawyers fail to secure client data in the cloud
The annual ABA techreport reports that whilst almost 60% of law firms use cloud computing applications to store client data, only 35% take standard precautionary measures to secure these data. The report identified severe deficiencies in firms’ approach to cybersecurity, particularly when using software as a service. Read the full report on the ABA site.
Law Society of Singapore advice on managing legal and ethical risks in cross-jurisdictional transactions
The Law Society of Singapore has released its opinion on legal and ethical risks in cross-jurisdictional transactions, drawing upon the example of the Panama papers, as well as the 2019 IBA-OECD report. The article also reports on the discussions from the July 2019 Law Society seminar, chaired by the Chairman of the IBA-OECD task force, and…
International women in law research project
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) of England and Wales is flagging an ‘International women in law’ research project and questionnaire, which may interest ICLR members. The project is striving to address one of the main issues faced by women globally, which is the lack of support available to them within the legal sector. This research builds…
Ethics and in house lawyers
A survey of 400 in-house lawyers, carried out by law professors from Exeter University and University College London in collaboration with flexible legal services provider Lawyers on Demand, has revealed that a third of in-house lawyers are sometimes placed in difficult moral positions. The research found that: 32% were asked ‘to advise or assist on things that made…
New Zealand Law Society is reviewing its structure and function
The New Zealand Law (NZLS) is commissioning an independent review of its structure and function. This review is necessary because the Law Society is of the opinion that the current Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 constrains its ability to be transparent about the complaints procedure, and to deal with a broad range of unacceptable behaviour, including…
LSRA announces the introduction of LLPs in Ireland and new complaints procedure
Law firms in Ireland are now able to set up limited liability partnerships (LLPs), following the commencement of a section of the 2015 Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) Act. As of October, the LSRA also took on responsibility for the complaints procedure governing solicitors and barristers in Ireland. Complaints made prior to October against solicitors and barristers…
BSB modernises its regulatory decision-making
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has taken a number of steps to modernise its regulatory decision-making. Recent changes include: A new edition of its handbook – introducing new Enforcement Decision Regulations The establishment of a new Independent Decision-making Body (IDB) The creation of a new Independent Reviewer role to carry out requests for the review of individual decisions The launch of…