Regulatory turf wars are the province of the specialist correspondent. Yet they can still make remarkably good copy for a business writer. For example, you’d be surprised how agitated our various accountancy bodies used to become over titles, modes of address, letters after members’ names and other such arcana. I used to write about this in unwonted detail, a long time ago. (Even then, I clearly needed to get out more.)
The law is no different. Who now recalls the bitter politicking and powergrabs that attended the gestation and early years of the current regulatory settlement for solicitors?
All has been much calmer of late. Which makes CILEX’s bid to jilt CILEx Regulation and elope with the SRA especially intriguing. Not only of itself, but also for what it might portend.
We know, not least from a £10m rise in its annual budget, that the SRA is open to an expansion of its remit. Moving to a single regulator for legal services is a ‘live conversation’ in Whitehall and at Westminster, its chair told a conference a few months back. I suspect CEO Paul Philip and Anna Bradley have a suitable candidate in mind should that prospect return to the political agenda. (Unlikely in the near term. After the next general election an incoming government will surely have far more pressing items to attend to.)
Many related questions suggest themselves, which still have either to be posed or satisfactorily answered. Here are just a few: where is the clamour among legal executives to submit to the (less than universally popular) superintendence of the SRA? Perhaps I missed it.
If the switch happens, will the SRA change its name? It won’t be the SRA any more, after all. And if it did, what would that connote?
Would consumers then be invited to infer that legal executives enjoy professional equivalence with solicitors? As a layperson, I’d assume ‘solicitor’ would remain by far the superior designation. Am I old-fashioned?
The Law Society is watching developments closely. A spokesperson told me: ‘It’s clear from the [LSB] that CILEX and CILEx Regulation need to work together on the issues before any firm proposals can emerge. We will take part in discussions and feedback on the proposals as and when appropriate.’
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