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7 January 2017

Dear Law Gazette,

The Legal Services Board wrote to me in the following terms:

"The Legal Services Act (section 27) draws a distinction between regulatory and representative functions of approved regulators. It requires the Legal Services Board to make rules setting out requirements to be met by approved regulators for the purposes of ensuring that regulatory functions are not prejudiced by representative ones (section 30). One of the rules that we have put in place is that approved regulators must delegate responsibility for performance of all regulatory functions. In the case of the Law Society, its regulatory functions have been wholly delegated to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

As a designated licensing authority the Solicitors Regulation Authority is responsible for considering applications for alternative business structures (ABS) and, if satisfied, granting a licence. It is also responsible for the information on its website about them, in this case the ABS register. As discussed, this includes details of the Head of Legal Practice and the Head of Finance and Administration for each licensed ABS. "

and

"The SRA has defined the terms lawyer and non-lawyer for its purposes (in its Handbook Glossary). It is possible for an individual who is considered to be a non-lawyer by the SRA to call themselves a lawyer in other circumstances without this being in breach of the Legal Services Act 2007. You also referred to the reserved activities in section 12 of the Act, and in particular the exercise of a right of audience. Section 13 of the Act indicates that a person is entitled to carry on a reserved legal activity if they are an authorised person (for example, a lawyer using the SRA’s terminology noted above) or an exempt person. Exemptions apply to the exercise of a right of audience, including in the area of mental health.

In terms of the content of the Law Society website, the Legal Services Board does not have remit over it. The Law Society website is provided in its capacity as a representative body and, as such, the Legal Services act 2007 prohibits the Board from interfering with it (section 29)."