The government this week adopted the Clementi report as the blueprint for the reform of legal services, and announced a desire for further liberalisation of conveyancing and probate.

And in a separate announcement, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, finally gave into pressure from personal injury lawyers and unveiled plans to regulate claims managers.


Addressing a Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) conference on the future of legal services, Lord Falconer backed Sir David Clementi's recommendations for a legal services board (LSB) to oversee the sector, an independent office for legal complaints, and legal disciplinary partnerships that can accept external investment and ownership.


A White Paper will be issued this year and Lord Falconer gave a commitment to bringing forward legislation.


He added: 'I am considering further liberalisation in the provision of probate and conveyancing services. My intention is to allow - with appropriate consumer safeguards - new providers, such as financial institutions, to enter the market.'


In addition, ahead of the creation on the LSB, 'we will be looking closely at any rules of the legal professional bodies that we believe may not be operating fully in the consumers' interest'. The bar's bans on partnership between barristers and conducting litigation are two such rules.


Lord Falconer also announced research into the impact of regulation on will writers. 'If regulation is in the public interest, it will happen,' he said.


The following day at a Health & Safety Executive conference, Lord Falconer said that while the Claims Standards Council has made good progress in trying to set up self-regulation, 'claims management companies have failed to demonstrate anything like the commitment that I would have hoped to have seen by now'.


He said claims management will come within the regulatory net in the new structure, and a front-line regulator - possibly the council - with oversight from the LSB will take charge.


Law Society President Edward Nally backed the moves and called on the government to bring forward legislation quickly. However, he said that the government should await the new framework for legal services before taking any further steps on conveyancing and probate.


A Bar Council spokesman reiterated its opposition to relaxing the bans identified, saying barristers could transfer to the solicitors' branch of the profession easily enough.