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…
Call for Publications: Journal for the Professional Lawyer
The American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility Publications Board is seeking submissions for publication in Journal of the Professional Lawyer, a peer-reviewed annual publication which typically features longer articles than the Center’s magazine, covering topics in greater depth, in law review format. The deadline for articles for the 2018 edition of Journal of the…
Bar Standards Board shares good practice for barristers and advice for clients on consumer feedback
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has today published new guidance that aims to encourage barristers to follow good practice when they receive feedback from their clients. It has also published a guide for the public about using and leaving feedback about barristers’ services. Along with the other legal regulators, the BSB was asked by the Competition and Markets Authority…
Acts Like a Lawyer, Talks Like a Lawyer…Non-Lawyer Advocates Representing Parties in Dispute Resolution
What are the ethical implications for lawyer mediators, arbitrators and dispute resolution providers when the lines between the roles of lawyers and the non-lawyers who are representing clients in dispute resolution become blurry? Traditionally, non-lawyer advocates (hereinafter NARs) have represented clients in the negotiations, mediation and arbitration of legal matters without cause for concern. Yes,…
New Legal Ethics Textbook: Problems in Professional Responsibility for a Changing Profession — Sixth Edition
In this new Sixth Edition, the longest running professional responsibility book on the market, Problems in Professional Responsibility for a Changing Profession, has been thoroughly updated and rearranged by its current and two new authors. New and expanded materials in this Edition address cybersecurity, access to justice, judicial ethics and disqualification, the ABA’s Ethics 20/20…
Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century
This essay, published by the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School, presents a practical vision of the responsibilities of lawyers as both professionals and as citizens at the beginning of the 21st century. Specifically, it seeks to define and give content to four ethical responsibilities that the authors believe are of signal…
Attitudes to dishonesty by health and care professionals
This research looks at public and professional attitudes towards dishonest behaviour by health and care professionals. The researchers used qualitative methods to explore responses to a number of scenarios based on real-life cases of professional dishonesty. The research was commissioned by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which oversees the work of nine statutory healthcare regulators…