The chief executive of the Legal Services Board has announced he will leave later this year.

Chris Kenny will step down from the post in November after almost six years in charge of the super-regulator. The LSB said he will take up a job as chief executive in the private sector start at the start of next year, but declined to comment on who he would join.

The post will be advertised later this week and the LSB board aims to make an appointment by the end of September.

Kenny has overseen the adoption of the Legal Services Act during his tenure, with the licensing of the first alternative business structures.

He has also made the case for a single regulator to oversees all elements of the legal profession – a proposal spurned by the government following its evaluation of the legal service sector earlier this year.

Kenny said he was proud to have played a part in an organisation that has shown ‘consistent determination, rigour and creativity in improving the quality of regulation in the legal services sector.’

Kenny, whose annual salary is £160,000, was the inaugural chief executive of the LSB having joined in January 2009 following its creation by the Legal Services Act. 

The LSB now oversees eight approved regulators, including the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, which was designated as an approved regulator today by a statutory instrument in parliament.