Following the Legal Services Act 2007, which permitted the delivery of legal services through Alternative Business Structures (ABS), the Solicitors Regulation Authority required all regulated legal service firms to appoint Compliance Officers for Legal Practice (COLPs). COLPs are charged with taking reasonable steps to ensure that firms comply with their obligations, which entails interpreting what outcomes‐focused regulation(OFR) requires…
Finding ways to quicken, not deaden, the spirit of legal education: reflections on approaches to drafting regulatory standards
Legal education is entering a period of great uncertainty. On the one hand the burgeoning quantity of law and legislation, the disruptive influences of technology and the reality of falling student wellbeing demand a re-examination of the content and approach to legal education. On the other hand, regulators and admitting authorities are increasingly concerned with…
Control over Blockchain Network
One of the key problems of blockchain technology is lack of control of users, organized societies, and state authorities over the transactions and asset on the decentralized network. The distributed ledger and blockchain are interesting as an example of new technology, which is the rule not only for users but also for governments. Technology-driven rules…
Lawyers’ ethical obligations, innovative models of legal service and a time of regulatory upheaval: settlement counsel as an instructive model
Current models of professional regulation still embody traditional norms around the lawyer’s role. This article explores the constraints of reactive, rule-based ethical frameworks, using the example of Settlement Counsel, an innovative negotiation structure to advance settlement in commercial litigation. Settlement counsel work alongside litigation counsel, on the same side of the litigation file, but with carefully bifurcated roles….
Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd? Regulating Third-Party Litigation Funding, Claimant Protection in the Tripartite Contract, and the Lens of Theory
The advent of third-party litigation funding (‘TPLF’) is arguably one of the most significant developments in civil litigation in common law countries for many decades. While third party-funded and indemnified defendants have appeared in common law courts for some centuries, the recent corresponding appearance of third party-funded and indemnified plaintiffs is in many ways a…
Access to Justice and Routine Legal Services: New Technologies Meet Bar Regulators
We are in the early stages of a technological revolution in legal services. Technology is displacing lawyers in a wide array of tasks such as document drafting, review, and assembly, and is also reshaping the way that lawyers find clients and deliver assistance. For most consumers, these are welcome developments. Such innovations generally reduce costs and increase…
How to Build a Better Bar Exam
As a licensing exam, the purpose of the bar exam is consumer protection–-ensuring that new lawyers have the minimum competencies required to practice law effectively. As critics point out, however, the exam, and particularly the multiple-choice question portion of the exam, has significant flaws because it assesses legalknowledge and analysis in an artificial and unrealistic context,…
Building the Rule of Law in Afghanistan: The Importance of Legal Education
The ‘rule of law’ remains an elusive commodity in Afghanistan. Securing a stable Afghanistan underpinned by the rule of law has proven exceedingly difficult despite widespread consensus in the international community regarding its fundamental importance. There is broad recognition that structural flaws in the Afghan justice system and legal profession undermine access to justice and democratic governance. Lawyers…
Platform Economy in Legal Profession: An Empirical Study on Online Legal Service Providers in China
Platform economy breaks into the legal profession by pooling lawyers with different specializations into a simple user-friendly platform, consolidating the lower-tier supply side of the legal market and generating economy of scale. This paper is the very first empirical piece looking into China’s online legal service portals. It is found that, the intermediary functions of…
Regulating Law Firms from the Inside: The Role of Compliance Officers for Legal Practice in England and Wales
Following the Legal Services Act 2007, which permitted the delivery of legal services through Alternative Business Structures (ABS), the Solicitors Regulation Authority required all regulated legal service firms to appoint Compliance Officers for Legal Practice (COLPs). COLPs are charged with taking reasonable steps to ensure that firms comply with their obligations, which entails interpreting what…