The Law Society of England and Wales has said regulatory reform should be put on the back-burner while the legal profession tries to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the UK Gazette, the body described a new review of regulation as an “interesting contribution to the debate” but stressed that there were bigger priorities for the UK government at the moment.

Single regulator

The review, conducted by Stephen Mayson, honorary professor of law at University College London, said that every provider of legal services – no matter what their legal qualifications – should be registered or regulated.

It also called for a single, sector-wide regulator of all legal providers, and a single point of entry for consumer complaints.

Upheaval

Society president Simon Davis said in the current climate that law firms need more support rather than the added burden of regulatory upheaval and uncertainty.

“The immediate focus of policymakers should be thinking about how to make better use of the current regulatory framework, deliver effective public legal education, resource legal aid properly and ensure the survival of the vulnerable parts of legal services that do so much to support people in difficult circumstances and to underpin a whole range of transactions, business and personal,” said Davis.

The body said there was already scope under the current framework for achieving some of the review’s ambitions, for example extending the list of reserved activities to include higher-risk work such as will writing and estate administration.

Needs

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers, one of the 10 frontline regulators the report identities could be shrunk down to one, said future regulation should take account of the particular needs for different sections of the profession.

“Stretching a single regulatory framework across the full range of legal services is not an obvious solution to the needs of a dynamic legal sector,” chief executive Sheila Kumar said.

Consumers

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) said the measures included in the report would protect consumers, open the market further to full competition and ensure the market in England and Wales stays competitive.

CILEx chair Professor Chris Bones said: “Activity-based regulation is a reform that is long-overdue and CILEx is already pursuing this.

“If you want your teeth seen to, you don’t visit a GP. Yet in legal services this generalist approach is still the basic building block of representation: at times to the detriment of consumers.”