‘The common thread that underpins the Legal Services Board’s work is the consumer,’ declares the LSB’s first business plan, which was published a week ago. Nothing remarkable about that, though what is worth dwelling on is the role of the body’s consumer panel. Part critical friend, part watchdog’s watchdog, the panel will need a strong chair and a degree of autonomy if it is to make a real difference.

Its role appears likely to extend as far as that of City regulator the Financial Services Authority’s consumer panel (FSCP), which is doing valuable work at a time of acute political sensitivity for that institution. The FSCP is intimately involved in policy development and it can and does raise its concerns directly with government ministers. And, although the FSA can disagree with the panel’s conclusions and ignore its recommendations, the regulator has to explain itself when it does so.

This leverage can affect policy, as it did when the FSCP lobbied successfully for home reversion schemes to be brought under the FSA’s protective wing.

Elsewhere, the LSB’s plan leaves solicitors in no doubt that where once there were clients, there are now only consumers. The following extract is telling: ‘We expect to see a shift in the power balance from the professional provider/client relationship to an empowered consumer/commercial provider relationship. We want to see consumers of legal services make the same demands of their providers in terms of quality, price and customer care as they do in any other commercial transaction.’

That of course assumes that clients – sorry, consumers – are not doing this already.