Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel started developing its lawyer self-assessment program more than two years ago, immediately after a seminal workshop on proactive, risk-based regulation at the 41st ABA National Conference of Professional Responsibility in May 2015. The new resource is a leading facet of a larger shift toward proactive management-based regulation, which aims to…
Transparency lies at the heart of Consumer Satisfaction
In January, the Legal Services Board (LSB) of England & Wales released its Regulatory Performance: Transitional Assessment Review looking at the transitional assessment of each legal services regulatory body against the LSB’s regulatory performance standards. The report found that it had “sufficient assurance that the regulatory bodies have met the minimum required level of performance…
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…
State Bar of California publishes 2017 Annual Discipline Report
In 2017 the State Bar and its prosecutorial arm, the Office of Chief Trial Counsel, implemented a number of comprehensive structural and process re-engineering reforms designed to improve public protection for all California residents. Given the ambitious nature of these reforms, key measures from the report indicate a decline in short-term performance as compared to…
LSB open consultation: share your views
The Legal Services Board (England and Wales) has launched a consultation paper seeking input and comment on their proposed three-year strategy (2018 – 2021) and business plan for 2018/19. Some of the key themes and questions they address include: the impact of technology; consumer engagement with and experience of legal services; the impact of changing population…
What We Know and Need to Know About Global Lawyer Regulation
This article is one of a series addressing the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services, and is intended to provide a foundation for policymakers interested in global lawyer regulation. Rather than suggest the best approach to regulating global lawyering and lawyers, however, the article instead takes aim at developing a wish-list…
Trends in global and Canadian lawyer regulation
This article examines Canadian lawyer regulation in light of the global trends challenging regulators worldwide. It explains why it is important for Canadian lawyers, regulators, clients, and other stakeholders to be aware of these global trends. The article also addresses the issue of whether these trends matter in a jurisdiction such as Saskatchewan that is not a…
SRA approach to regulatory objectives
The approach of the Solicitors Regulation Authority to its regulatory objectives is explained on the corporate strategy page of the SRA website.
Why Your Jurisdiction Should Consider Jumping on the Regulatory Objectives Bandwagon
It has become increasingly common to find jurisdictions adopting an explicit and succinct statement of the goals they are trying to achieve when they regulate lawyers. The first example was the 2007 UK Legal Services Act, which set forth the regulatory objectives that the Act — and its implementation — should achieve. The form that such adoption…