An application to allow legal executives to obtain standalone litigation practice rights will be fast-tracked to address the Mazur fallout.

CILEx Regulation has applied to the oversight regulator the Legal Services Board, with the matter being prioritised within the statutory process.

The LSB met frontline regulators last week to discuss how the profession can respond to last month's Mazur judgment, which confirmed that unauthorised lawyers cannot conduct litigation. This has prompted firms of all sizes to take cases away from legal executives who had previously operated under the assumption they could do this work under supervision.

The oversight regulator stressed today that Mazur does not change the law under the Legal Services Act but has prompted discussion about how the legislation is ‘interpreted and applied’ when it coms to the reserved legal activity of conducting litigation.

CILEx Regulation's application is the first response from regulators to try to address the issue. The organisation currently awards litigation practice rights only to applicants who are also applying for advocacy practice rights at the same time.

But CILEX members say their employers or the firms that they lead, and particularly local authorities, rarely provide advocacy services and when they are required to offer such services they instruct a solicitor or barrister on an ad-hoc basis.

With this application, CILEx Regulation proposes to decouple the litigation and advocacy practice rights in both sets of education standards but retain the current application requirements and routes to authorisation for each practice right individually.

The LSB could make a decision within 28 days on whether to approve the application.

The oversight regulator has also announced it will undertake a review to look at how approved regulators and regulatory bodies ensured that information on conducting litigation was accurate and reliable. There has been much criticism of messaging previously put out by CILEX about practising rights, while the SRA also wrote to the firm involved in Mazur to initially and inaccurately say that unauthorised people could conduct litigation under supervision.

Law Society president Mark Evans said today: 'While the judgment does not change the statutory requirements relating to authorised conduct of litigation as a reserved legal activity, it is important that there is clarity across all regulators and that consistent guidance is being provided to the professions. This guidance needs to be available quickly, so our members can review their processes and adapt them as necessary.'

Meanwhile, the legal executive community and wider profession continue to galvanise and organise in the wake of the High Court ruling. A petition calling for the LSA to be amended to enable CILEX members to take on litigation roles had reached 1,300 signatures by this morning, having been created at the end of last week.

Petition starter Raj Patel, an associate solicitor at Brighton firm Family Law Partners, said: ‘I can see how it is impacting colleagues and friends of mine and the wider legal world.

‘CILEX members are trained, skilled legal professionals who contribute significantly to the legal industry in England and Wales. Their qualifications and expertise are often on par with more traditionally recognised roles such as solicitors and barristers. The restrictions on conducting litigation undermine their potential to offer comprehensive legal services.’

Caroline Morris, managing director of Serious Injury Law part of Fletchers Group, posted on Linkedin that the Mazur decision has caused upset and uncertainty and will result in some change.

‘I work at a firm which has never once made me feel less qualified or capable because I was a FILEX, in fact it has positively celebrated that fact,’ she said.

‘Now, I am truly blessed to lead a team full of lawyers – some non-qualified, some CILEX and some solicitors, but all talented… To all those lawyers affected, yes, we will need to adapt but we prevail, and we will still be able to achieve the amazing things that we do for our clients.’