UK Consumer Groups Favour Single Regulator For Lawyers

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

08 November 2004

Speaking recently via a satellite link at the International Bar Association (IBA) conference in New Zealand, Prudential chairman Sir David Clementi, revealed that consumer organisations in the United Kingdom favour the creation of an overarching regulatory body to oversee the legal profession.

Although he declined to give his own view on the separation of representation and regulation for lawyers in advance of the publication of his report on the matter next month, Sir David announced that:

"Most consumer groups would prefer model A, and that is one indicator of their view of the current ability of the professional bodies to regulate well."

Model A, as outlined in an earlier consultation on the matter, would create an umbrella legal services authority to directly oversee the activities of the various professional sectors.

The majority of the UK's legal professional bodies, however, have expressed a preference for the B+ model, whereby the Law Society would separate its representative and regulatory functions, in addition to being overseen by a legal services board.

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