Ireland set to embrace ‘Tesco Law’
The Republic of Ireland is planning to liberalise its legal services market, with the government there poised to publish a bill introducing Clementi-style reforms.
The Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011, expected within the next week, will seek to establish independent regulation of the Irish legal professions; improve access and competition; make costs more transparent; and ensure adequate procedures for addressing consumer complaints.
It will provide for a new, independent Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA), with responsibility for oversight of both of the legal professions. The regulator will be made up of 11 members and have a lay majority and lay chair.
The bill will also pave the way for multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs), an increased advocacy role for solicitors, direct access to barristers and law firm ownership by non-lawyers.
The new regulator will carry out research and consult on other changes, including the unification of the two branches of the legal profession and the establishment of a separate profession of conveyancers.
In a statement, the Department of Justice and Equality said: ‘It is crucial to ensure that there are no unnecessary barriers to competition created by restrictions on business models for offering legal services or by restrictive practices within the legal profession.’
The legislation will provide for an independent complaints structure to deal with complaints about professional misconduct, which will be supported by an independent Legal Professions Disciplinary Tribunal.
The move will mean that consumers will no longer have to complain directly to the Law Society or the Bar Council to obtain redress.
The bill will also create an Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator, which will assume the role of the existing Office of Taxing-Master, but introduce greater transparency into the system.
It will also introduce protection for whistleblowers who report in good faith misconduct in the legal profession.
Minister for justice, equality and defence, Alan Shatter, said: ‘The cabinet’s decision to publish the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 is a good day for the consumer and the legal profession.’
He said: ‘It provides for greater transparency for legal costs and greater assistance and protection for consumers of legal services. It also provides an entirely independent dispute system to determine allegations of professional misconduct and a new system for legal costs adjudication where legal costs are in dispute.’
Shatter added: ‘It is a good day for the legal profession as well because restrictive practices which inhibit the delivery of legal services are being removed through new business models.
'Anachronistic and unnecessary restrictions derived from regulatory rules which permeate the legal profession are outlawed and a structure is to be put in place which provides for the possibility of greater competition in the provision of professional legal training and a reduction in the cost of such training.’
Senior partner at Kennedys’ Dublin office, James Staines, welcomed the reforms but predicts a mixed response from Ireland’s lawyers.
He does not expect many solicitors or barristers to get involved in MDPs as most work in small firms which, he believes, will not suit the new arrangements.
However, in respect of Kennedys he added: ‘If we believe an MDP will enable a better service to clients, we may well look into it.’
Staines said he would like the bill to provide for limited liability partnerships, which he suggested should be introduced before MDPs.
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Legal Services Regulation Bill - Ireland
I read with interest your piece about the proposals to reform the legal profession in Ireland. I myself am a dual qualified English and Irish lawyer as well as being an Irish Registered Trade Mark Attorney.
I very much welcome the Legal Services Regulation Bill and believe its provisions are long overdue. It is a shame that it has taken the EU and IMF to bring the Irish legal profession into the 21st century.
I particularly commend the Minister of Justice for his efforts to bring about the creation of an independent regulator. Far from diminishing the independence of the legal profession, an independent regulator will only enhance it. A template already exists in Ireland for independent regulation of legal professionals. Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys have long been independently regulated through the office of the Controller of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks. The Patent and Trade Mark profession have no say in how they are regulated and that is how it should be. The Controller is entirely independent and is answerable only to the Irish people and not to the profession. The manner in which Patent and Trade Mark attorneys qualify is also independent and it is the Controller who has the ultimate say who gets and stays on the Registers of Patent and Trade Mark attorneys.
Regulation of the legal profession in Ireland should be based on the premise that the law belongs to the people and is not the exclusive preserve of the Law Society or the Bar Council. Any professional who advises and practices Irish law should be required to recognise this principle.
Minister Shatter's bold proposals will ultimately serve to enhance the reputation of Ireland as a country with a modern and independent legal profession.