Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey has unveiled Bill 161, which is designed to both implement Legal Aid Services Act, as well as amending the Law Society Act. The act is designed to ease the regulatory burden, as well as creating some accountability from lawyers. Some of the proposed changes include: raising maximum fines for lawyers to…
ABA’s Center for Innovation calls for innovation in lawyer regulation
A report released by the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center for Innovation has called for U.S. jurisdictions to consider new approaches to regulation to increase access to justice. The recommendations are under review by the ABA House of delegates, where if approved they will be passed as a resolution, supporting the revision of existing structures….
New Zealand Law Society is reviewing its structure and function
The New Zealand Law (NZLS) is commissioning an independent review of its structure and function. This review is necessary because the Law Society is of the opinion that the current Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 constrains its ability to be transparent about the complaints procedure, and to deal with a broad range of unacceptable behaviour, including…
LSRA announces the introduction of LLPs in Ireland and new complaints procedure
Law firms in Ireland are now able to set up limited liability partnerships (LLPs), following the commencement of a section of the 2015 Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) Act. As of October, the LSRA also took on responsibility for the complaints procedure governing solicitors and barristers in Ireland. Complaints made prior to October against solicitors and barristers…
BSB modernises its regulatory decision-making
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has taken a number of steps to modernise its regulatory decision-making. Recent changes include: A new edition of its handbook – introducing new Enforcement Decision Regulations The establishment of a new Independent Decision-making Body (IDB) The creation of a new Independent Reviewer role to carry out requests for the review of individual decisions The launch of…
Legal Market Landscape Report (July 2018)
Commissioned by the State Bar of California, July 2018, Professor William D. Henderson The Bar contracted with Professor William D. Henderson to conduct a landscape analysis of the current state of the legal services market, including new technologies and business models used in the delivery of legal services, with a special focus on enhancing access…
Outcome of Hong Kong foreign lawyers consultation
The Law Society of Hong Kong has been considering changes to their foreign lawyer practising rules for the past three years. The principal proposed changes were as follows: Amendments to Rule 12(1) to clarify that a foreign lawyer may only provide a legal service which relates to the law(s) of the jurisdiction(s) stated on a…
Lawyer regulation reforms in the US
We recently reported on the work of the California State Bar and their proposals for regulatory reform put forward by the Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services as well as the work being done by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) Testing Task Force. In her article, ‘Re-regulating Lawyers for the 21st…
State Bar of California seeking public comments on regulatory reforms
The State Bar of California is seeking public comment on proposals for regulatory reform put forward by the Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services. The task force was set up to improve access to justice through regulatory reform, following a report in 2018 that suggested that regulation was limiting innovations which could…
LSB updates governance rules to “enhance regulatory independence”
A new set of rules have been released by the Legal Services Board (LSB), which aim to clarify the separation between representative bodies and their regulators. The internal governance rules (IGRs) have been published following a series of public consultations that first began in November 2017. The rules which were released by the oversight regulator…