Policy: 'innovative solutions' are needed says chief executive as institute launched

The College of Law has launched a think-tank to influence policy-making in the legal services sector.


Its Legal Services Policy Institute will be headed by Professor Stephen Mayson, an authority on law firm strategy who has played a key role in Nottingham Law School's MBA in legal practice.


The launch comes in the wake of the Clementi review of legal services regulation and the Carter review of legal aid procurement. The institute's objective is to alert government, regulators, professional bodies, practitioners and the wider public to the implications of any proposed changes.


The college's chief executive, Nigel Savage, said the sector was facing a period of enormous change over the next few years.


'If we are to meet these challenges, we all need to come up with innovative solutions based on a sound understanding of what is happening out there in the market,' he added.


Professor Mayson said the combined effects of the Clementi and Carter reviews would fundamentally change the dynamics of legal practice in England and Wales. 'And yet little work has been carried out to assess the implications of externally owned and financed law firms, or of how creating larger, consolidated and branded firms will deliver economies of scale,' he said.


Law Society President Fiona Woolf welcomed the establishment of the institute, adding that any initiative that better informed the formulation of policy could only contribute to the development of more effective planning.