SUMMARY The New York City Bar Association’s E-Discovery Working Group issued a report examining the challenges of conducting discovery when the scope of discovery exceeds US borders. The Committee lays out the most common circumstances in which cross-border discovery would occur, including issues of personal jurisdiction over foreign parties as well as cases of US subsidiaries of…
Bar Standards Board explains how it assures competence at the Bar
Following its decision last year not to implement the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has today published more detail about how it assures the competence of barristers. The approach reflects the BSB’s move in the last few years to become a more risk- and evidence-based regulator that takes better targeted action to maintain…
Event: NOBC Annual Conference 2018
The National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC) are holding their annual conference on 1-4 August in Chicago.
D.C. Bar seeking views on changes to Rule 46
In May we reported that the D.C. Bar Board of Governors had submitted proposed amendments to certain provisions of Court of Appeals Rule 46. This Rule governs admission of non-ABA-accredited law school graduates, including foreign-educated individuals, to the D.C. Bar. Michael Rybak, Senior Staff Attorney of the Office of Regulation Counsel at the D.C. Bar has been…
SRA consultation on protecting the users of legal services
The SRA has launched a consultation on “Protecting the users of legal services: balancing cost and access to legal services”. While most people are happy with the service they receive from solicitors and regulated law firms, things can and do go wrong. It is crucial that the public can trust that when things go wrong…
The Law Society of Scotland launches price transparency consultation
The Law Society of Scotland is asking the legal profession and consumer bodies for their views on price transparency for legal services. The consultation, Price transparency – promoting consumer choice, aims to stimulate discussion within the legal profession and among other stakeholders, including consumer-interest groups, and is seeking views on the benefits and challenges of…
Solicitors Regulation Authority publishes research on trainee salaries
The SRA has released a new impact assessment looking at the deregulation of the prescribed SRA minimum salary for trainees. In 2014, the SRA removed the minimum salary levels for trainee solicitors. The previous levels of prescribed salary were replaced with a requirement for trainees to be paid at least the national minimum or living wage,…
Women at the Bar: exploring ways to promote gender equality
Following on from the Bar Standards Board 2016 ‘Women at the Bar’ survey report, the BSB has now published a second 2018 report aimed to explore and develop potential solutions to address two of the key issues identified by the 2016 research, namely: Unfair treatment (issues around policies and practice in work allocation, flexible working, and…
Legal Services Regulatory Authority in Ireland: seeking views on education and training
The Irish Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) invites submissions as part of a public consultation prior to a report to the Minister for Justice and Equality on the education and training arrangements in the State for legal practitioners. The Legal Services Regulatory Authority was established on 1 October 2016 and is responsible for the regulation…
Impact evaluation of Solicitors Regulation Authority’s regulatory reform programme
The SRA has delivered significant regulatory reform to the legal market in recent years, key developments have included the introduction of: Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) in 2012 Multi-Disciplinary Practices (MDPs) in 2014 the reformed separate business rule in 2015 To help the SRA understand the early impact of these changes, including identifying evidence of any…