This year will be pivotal for the delivery and regulation of legal services. We will see the culmination of a process which started in 2003 when the constitutional affairs secretary, Lord Falconer, asked Sir David Clementi to review the regulation of legal services and recommend the framework that ‘would best promote competition, innovation and the public and consumer interest in an efficient, effective and independent legal sector’.

Since then, intensive preparations have been made for the licensing later this year of the first law firms that will be allowed to accept outside capital, and in which lawyers and non-lawyers will be able to share the management and control of the business. We in the regulatory world have become comfortably familiar with the concept of alternative business structures – but we should not lose sight of the fact that this will be a momentous, groundbreaking event for legal services and the profession.

In the coming days we will start to review comments from the final consultation on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new Handbook, which will underpin the regulation of solicitors and law firms from October. The Handbook will be published in April, giving solicitors and firms six months to familiarise themselves with the fresh regulatory approach.

During this time I will be leading an intensive communication exercise, designed to enable solicitors and other interested parties across England and Wales to get expert briefings on the aspects that are of most interest or concern to them. There will be numerous roadshows and workshops. Senior SRA people will present to seminars and conferences, and I am sure that the Law Society would also wish to assist the profession.

For those who cannot get to an event, we will continue our free CPD-accredited webinars. These online events include an audio presentation, onscreen information and the opportunity to question the presenters or listen to other people’s questions and the answers. Updates and features will also appear in our e-newsletter, SRA Update, which is sent to all regulated individuals for whom we have an email address. To sign up for this, go to the SRA website.

We expect to be designated as a licensing authority for ABSs on 10 August. We will then be able to consider formal applications for authorisation as ABSs on 6 October, the date on which the code, the principles and various sets of underpinning rules and regulations come into force. Also from 6 October, legal disciplinary practices with non-lawyer managers will be able to opt to passport to ABS status.

The first week of October will also be significant for another reason: subject to the outcome of a consultation that is under way at the moment, we expect to bring in various changes to the profession’s indemnity insurance regime. These are likely to include: removal of the single renewal date; further restrictions on access to the assigned risks pool; and the ending of the requirement to acquire cover for work done for financial institutions. Our aim with these changes will be to continue to ensure protection for those users of legal services who need it, while also providing greater flexibility to firms, plus a reduction in the unacceptable burden of propping up those firms that cannot buy open-market insurance.

Also this year, the SRA will start to turn its main applications processes into easier, cheaper, more efficient and speedy online transactions. We will start with student enrolment and then work through the 50 or so paper-based transactions (including practising certificate renewal) that individuals and firms have with the SRA, which currently are mostly processed manually. We are delighted that upgrades to our IT systems starting this month make this overdue modernisation possible.

Under the guidance of our newly appointed education and training committee, we will be reviewing how best to address the embedding of professional values and ethics in practice, and the development and maintenance of professional competence. In that context, by the end of 2011 we expect substantial progress to have been made in the review of the current CPD regime, which is widely regarded as unfit for purpose.

We have many interests and concerns in common with the other legal regulators. Whenever appropriate, it makes sense for all the people we regulate to pool expertise and share costs. During the spring, the joint initiative by the SRA, Bar Standards Board (BSB) and ILEX Professional Standards (IPS) to review the legal education and training requirements of individuals and entities delivering legal services will be getting into its stride. This root-and-branch review will consider the challenges and changes that will influence the shape of the future legal services sector and determine the education and training systems necessary to underpin that structure.

In July, again in collaboration with the BSB and the IPS, the SRA will launch a quality assurance for criminal advocacy scheme. In addressing the competence requirements for criminal advocates at all levels of practice, the new approach to assure the quality of advocacy will build on existing quality measures to produce a robust, proportionate and effective scheme.

This is a snapshot of the principal projects that will concern the SRA in 2011. There are others. This will be an intensely demanding year for the organisation and the profession, but I am both determined and confident that, in partnership with those we regulate, we will deliver.

Charles Plant is chair of the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority