ILEX urges Clementi to abandon push for separate roles

The Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) is to call on Sir David Clementi to shy away from requiring professional bodies to separate their dual regulatory and representative roles.

In its submission to the review of the legal services sector, ILEX will press for the adoption of model B, which would see the creation of an umbrella legal services board overseeing the bodies in the exercise of their functions.

It rejected model B+, which would in addition require them to split their dual roles, and model A, which would see the creation of a legal equivalent of the Financial Services Authority.

Diane Burleigh, ILEX secretary general, said: 'We have one of the most highly regarded professions in the world - there is not that much that needs to be changed.'

At its most recent meeting, the Law Society Council recognised the 'desirability' of greater separation of its roles, but felt unable to express

a preference between models B and B+ because of uncertainty over the exact detail (see [2004] Gazette, 20 May, 1).

Philip Hoult