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The Legal Services Board issued a Consultation Paper on 18 November 2009 “Alternative business structures: approaches to licensing” accessible at http://www.legalservicesboard.org.uk/what_we_do/consultations/index.htm. The closing date for the consultation is 19 February 2010. The CLC will be submitting a response to the consultation and invites licensed conveyancers to submit comments either to the CLC or direct to the Legal Services Board.
The issues raised in the Consultation are very important to the CLC and to the future of the licensed conveyancer profession as well as to the other branches of the legal profession.
A number of licensed conveyancer practices now either have non lawyer managers or have owners who are not lawyers. All these practices will need to become licensed bodies (also known as Alternative Business Structures - ABSs) regulated by the CLC as a licensing authority (LA). The Consultation Paper sets out in varying degrees of detail the nature of the rules it expects licensing authorities to make. For instance, as a licensing authority the CLC will require each licensed body to have a Head of Legal Practice and a Head of Finance and Administration. All Managers (principally partners and directors) and owners will have to pass a “fitness to practise/own” test. Other important issues are raised: requirements for governance of the practice, indemnity insurance, arrangements for compensation, reserved and unreserved services, access to justice.
The rules for ABSs will be different from the rules for licensed conveyancer practices. The CLC’s current view is that the two regulatory regimes should be very closely aligned although they will not be identical. All licensed conveyancers will therefore be affected by these changes, whether or not they choose to practise in an ABS.
The CLC will consider all suggestions to inform its response (which should be sent to clc@clc-uk.org). This is your opportunity to comment on and participate in these important changes. I look forward to hearing from you. |
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