The Legal Services Board today published its business plan for 2009/10 and named its senior management team.

The plan gives priority to work on regulatory independence, alternative business structures, providing effective redress and the development of a model of regulatory excellence in legal services.

The LSB has also published a consultation paper on recovering the costs of regulation. This includes proposals on how the costs of the LSB, and the Office for Legal Complaints, are to be spread between the eight approved regulators, including the Law Society.

LSB chairman David Edmonds (pictured) said: ‘We will now be able to tackle the vital tasks of improving access to justice, promoting the interests of consumers and the public interest and opening up the legal market. Parliament has given us these responsibilities and I am delighted that our consultation exercise has shown wide support for our ambitious and innovative approach.’

The LSB also named its senior team, who will take up their positions in May.

They are:LSB chief executive Chris Kenny said: ‘The board’s new senior team has extensive experience of the current regulatory framework, the needs of corporate and individual customers and a determination to improve access to justice.

  • Fran Gillon – director of regulatory practice (currently director, universal service and customer protection at the Postal Services Commission).
  • Edwin Josephs – director of finance and services (most recently director of finance and operations at the National Consumer Council).
  • Bruce Macmillan – general counsel (currently EMEA senior counsel for the consumer, retail and business distribution divisions at Dell Corporation).
  • Julie Myers – director of corporate affairs (currently on secondment at the LSB from her post as head of strategy and communications at the Bar Standards Board).
  • Crispin Passmore – director of strategy and research (currently strategy director at the Legal Services Commission).

‘Their wider experience in public and private sectors, from economic regulation and the consumer movement, means that we are well placed to evaluate and apply lessons from beyond the sector as well.’

The LSB’s Business Plan 2009/10 can be found at: http://www.legalservicesboard.org.uk/news_publications/publications/index.htm

The consultation paper on funding proposals can be found at: http://www.legalservicesboard.org.uk/what_we_do/consultations/index.htm