The Law Society of Ontario has announced that it will use its statutory summary revocation power in late 2026 for licences that have remained indefinitely suspended under an order of the Hearing Division. The measure applies where the suspension followed a finding of professional misconduct or a failure to comply with a Hearing Division order…
Illinois restricts nonlawyer influence over law firms
Illinois has enacted Public Act 104-0801, introducing statutory limits on the role of entities owned, operated or controlled wholly or partly by people who are not licensed attorneys, including management services organisations. Such entities may not interfere with lawyers’ professional judgment, control the disclosure of client records or attorney-client communications, or exercise specified powers over…
New Zealand prepares digital court case management through Te Au Reka
New Zealand’s judiciary and Ministry of Justice are developing Te Au Reka, a digital case management system that will change how lawyers, court users, registry staff and judges manage cases. The accompanying Courts Portal is intended to bring filing, payment, case tracking and access to court information into a single online service, replacing a range…
United Kingdom opens legal services advisory AI Growth Lab
The United Kingdom government has opened the first sector programme under its advisory AI Growth Lab, selecting legal services as the initial focus. The initiative is designed for organisations developing or deploying AI-enabled legal services, including lawtech companies, law firms, alternative business structures, conveyancing businesses, public bodies, smaller businesses and technology developers. Successful applicants will…
South Africa restores in-person supervision for candidate attorneys
South Africa’s Legal Practice Council has issued a directive confirming the application of rule 22.1.3.1 to practical vocational training contracts and withdrawing the administrative notice on remote working issued in November 2022. With effect from 3 August 2026, every candidate attorney must serve in the office of the principal under the direct personal supervision of…
Singapore to review legal education and professional workplace norms
Singapore’s Ministry of Law has announced a broader review of legal education as law schools and the profession respond to changing expectations and workplace pressures. Minister for Law Edwin Tong said attrition figures alone do not explain why lawyers leave practice. A more important distinction is whether lawyers are pursuing other opportunities or are being…
Independent review calls for major reset of Legal Services Board
The Ministry of Justice has published an independent public bodies review of the Legal Services Board, led by Richard Lloyd. The review examined the LSB’s statutory remit, strategic clarity, governance, accountability and organisational capabilities. It concludes that the LSB has lacked strategic clarity and that its oversight of frontline regulation has fallen short of what government and…
Brazilian Bar launches national study on AI in legal practice
Brazil’s Federal Bar Council, the Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil (OAB), has launched a national study with Stanford University’s Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Brazilian Institute of Education, Development and Research on the use and impact of artificial intelligence in legal practice. The initiative forms part of the National Plan for the Integration of Artificial…
New Zealand introduces administrative triage for lawyer complaints
New Zealand has amended the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 to permit the Lawyers Complaints Service to undertake an initial administrative assessment of eligible complaints before deciding whether they must proceed to a Standards Committee. The Service may take no action or no further action where specified grounds apply, including where the passage of time…
Australia-UK regulatory dialogue reports on cross-border legal practice
The Legal Services Regulatory Dialogue established under the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement has published a report on its work concerning cross-border legal practice. The Dialogue brought together legal services regulators and professional bodies from both countries as a formal mechanism for examining issues that affect lawyers and law firms operating between the two jurisdictions….