A wide-ranging review of solicitors' regulation commissioned by the Law Society and conducted by Lord Hunt of Wirral (pictured) is published today. Among the Tory peer's 88 recommendations is a proposal for what he describes as 'authorised internal regulation', under which law firms of all sizes would regulate themselves subject to the implementation of various governance standards.

This was the regime recommended in the subsidiary report conducted by former senior civil servant Nick Smedley into the regulation of the big corporate practices. Hunt expects that the big corporate firms would be in the 'first wave' of 'authorised internal regulation'.

Other recommendations include extending regulation to will-writing and all types of probate work. Hunt, a senior consultant at Beachcroft, also proposes that solicitors take their own version of medicine's 'hippocratic oath'.

Robert Heslett, president of the Law Society, commented: 'We commissioned Lord Hunt to undertake this work because we were conscious that although there had been exhaustive consideration of the structure for regulation of legal services, much less attention has been paid to the vital question how effective modern regulation of the solicitors profession should actually operate - in the interests of both the public and the profession. Lord Hunt has set out an imaginative and thought-provoking blueprint which I am confident will be invaluable to the SRA as it charts its way forward for the future. We look forward to working closely with the SRA as it develops its approach.'

To read the full report see: http://www.legalregulationreview.com/site.php?s=1