High street firms to face free-for-all
High street solicitors could lose their hold on conveyancing and probate work, and the push towards multi-disciplinary partnerships (MDPs) could receive a boost, if government proposals released last week survive consultation.
However, the Lord Chancellor's Department's (LCD) response to the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) report on competition in the professions suggested that legal professional privilege and the QC system are safe from reform.
The specific changes in the profession that the consultation paper throws up have also led the government to begin work on a review of the entire regulatory framework for legal services.
The paper said the government is keen to open the conveyancing and probate markets.
It would activate the dormant authorised conveyancing practitioners scheme, created by the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, which would enable banks and building societies, among others, to offer services.
Initial costs for the scheme would be centrally funded but it would then be self-financing, the consultation said.
Similar proposals apply to probate as laid out in the 1990 Act, except that the Financial Services Authority would regulate many practitioners.
On MDPs, the government was circumspect, although the Lord Chancellor 'has indicated his openness to proposals for change'.
It said it is 'keen to remove practices that are not in the public interest', but wanted to weigh competition with the need to maintain 'an independent, honest and diverse profession'.
The consultation said it wants to test the appetite for new business models, and asks whether the Law Society should have power to regulate non-lawyers and whether employed solicitors should be allowed to advise third parties.
On legal professional privilege, which the OFT report said gave lawyers an advantage over other professionals, the response said 'legal privilege is a cornerstone of the legal system'.
It said the OFT had not demonstrated sufficient need to abolish such a fundamental right.
However, it may be extended to other professionals.
On QCs, the response stressed the usefulness of the QC system in marking out distinction in a self-employed profession.
Of the so-called 'secret soundings' appointment system, it said simply: 'The Lord Chancellor is well-positioned to be custodian of this process'.
Welcoming the paper, a Law Society spokeswoman said: 'We look forward to exploring with the government models for regulation in the light of these changes.
'We are particularly pleased to see that the LCD's paper acknowledges the importance of maintaining a network of solicitors' practices throughout the country in order to ensure public access to justice.'
Bar chairman David Bean QC, welcomed the government's belief that 'the QC system is essentially sound'.
He said the Bar's own review into the appointment of QCs will be completed later this year.
The consultation closes on 22 November.
LINKS: www.lcd.gov.uk
Jeremy Fleming
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