The Legal Services Board is the
independent body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales.
They were created by the Legal Services Act 2007 with the goal of "reforming and modernising the
legal services market place by putting the interests of consumers at the heart of the system".
The act built on much of the earlier work of Sir David Clementi in examining the role of the
regulators and the legal profession.
The Legal Services Board now shares the regulatory function with eight ‘Approved Regulators’ of the legal profession,
each of which have direct responsibility for the day-to-day regulation of the different types of lawyers,
including these:
Solicitors: Law Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority (independent regulatory body of the Law Society) and
Legal Complaints Service (independent complaints handling body for the Law Society)
Barristers: Bar Council and Bar Standards Board (independent regulatory arm of the Bar Council)
Legal Executives: Institute of Legal Executives and ILEX Professional Standards Board (independent regulatory arm of the Institute of Legal Executives)
Licensed Conveyancers: Council for Licensed Conveyancers (regulatory body for Licensed Conveyancers)
(For links to these bodies see the Legal Services Board site, as above, or see more below).
The Law Society, representing solicitors across England and Wales,
(around 100,000) negotiating with regulators, government and others, offering training and advice.
Solicitors Regulation Authority, dealing with regulatory and disciplinary
matters, setting and monitoring standards, acting solely in the public interest.
The SRA was previously called the Law Society Regulation Board.
The Legal Complaints Service is a service for the public wishing
to make a complaints against solicitors, independent and impartial. "We have a dedicated staff of 390 helping
you to resolve your complaint." Previously known as the Consumer Complaints Service.
Bar Council The Bar Council is the professional body for
barristers in England and Wales. It provides representation and services for the Bar, and Guidance on issues
of professional practice. This website caters for a diverse audience.
Bar Standards Board was established in January 2006
as a result of the Bar Council separating its regulatory and representative functions. As the independent regulatory
board of the Bar Council, they are responsible for regulating barristers called to the Bar in England and Wales.
Institute of Legal Executives is the professional body
representing around 24,000 qualified and trainee Legal Executives, and is recognised by the Ministry of
Justice as one of the three core routes to becoming a qualified lawyer.
eLIS (electronic Library and Information Services)
provides legal information for the judiciary, the DCA and the Her Majesty's Courts Service.
This site also provides a portal service to key legal information on the Internet.
Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union
is the officially recognised representative organisation for the legal profession in
the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).
The CCBE liases between the Bars and Law Societies from the Members States of the
European Union and the European Economic Area. It represents all such Bars and Law
Societies before the European institutions, and
through them some 500,000 European lawyers.
The CCBE enjoys consultative status with the Council of Europe.
Local Law Societies
There are 127 local law societies, some of which have their own web sites.
These used to be listed on the main Law Society page I cannot
find them at the moment - if you can help, please contact me!
Here is one particularly large and active one.....
Liverpool Law Society was
founded in 1827 and now has 1,600 members in practice within the Merseyside area.
It is one of the largest law societies in England and Wales.
Membership is broad and varies from practitioners engaged in high value commercial
work to complex charity work; from Maritime law to legal aid.
There is a major law library which is one of the largest outside London and the Society
runs its own CPD courses and arranges special events and exhibitions.
and here is a smaller, rural one
Norfolk and Norwich Law Society have launched a new web site showing what can be
done by knowing what you are trying to do and then doing it well. As solicitor Tessa Shepperson says (who is
secretary of the group and herself provides an important site on Landlord Law)
"Non members can read about the society, do a search for a local solicitors firm, and read about our courses as
well as read articles submitted by members (there is only one at present but hopefully we will have some more soon),
and read about the annual Norfolk Law lecture.
There is more information for NNLS members but this is password protected. We also have a newsflash service
for members, which keeps them informed of what is going on. Non members
can ask to go on our mailing list to be kept informed of our courses." It is an attractive site with
some very nice photographs of local landscapes - if you've got it, flaunt it!
Professional Societies, Gateways, Legal Communities, Portals