Friday, 08 August 2014
LSB welcomes authorisation of Buckinghamshire Law + Limited as an ABS
The SRA’s decision to authorise Buckinghamshire Law + Limited (a collaborative venture between Buckinghamshire County Council and Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority) as an alternative business structure (ABS) is a welcome development.
We are pleased to see this positive step as it builds on the potential that ABS offer and opens the door to new possibilities in the legal services sector and the provision of legal services.
We look forward to seeing what Buckinghamshire Law + Limited now does and the positive response of traditional legal practitioners to the significant development.
For further information, please contact our Communications Manager Vincent McGovern or by calling 020 7271 0059.
Notes for editors:
- Alternative Business Structures (ABS) allow non-lawyers to invest in and own legal practices.
- The Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act) sets out the core regulatory framework for this new regime (can be found here). .
- The Legal Services Board (LSB) was tasked by the Act to develop and implement the framework under which ABS can come into existence, by ensuring that licensing authorities are in place with the necessary competence to licence individual firms.
- The first ABS licences were issued on 6 October 2011. More information on ABS can be found here.
- The Solicitor’s Regulation Authority and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers are the only two licensing authorities currently authorised to issue ABS licences.
- The Act created the LSB as a new regulator with responsibility for overseeing the regulation of legal services in England and Wales. The new regulatory regime became active on 1 January 2010.
- The LSB oversees eight approved regulators, which in turn regulate individual lawyers. The approved regulators, designated under Part 1 of Schedule 4 of the 2007 Act, are the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Master of the Faculties, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys and the Association of Costs Lawyers.
In addition, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants are listed as approved regulators in relation only to reserved probate activities.
- As at 1 April 2014, the legal profession comprised 138,243 solicitors, 326 alternative business structures, 15,279 barristers, 7,927 chartered legal executives and 5,404 other individuals operating in other areas of the legal profession such as conveyancing. The sector was valued at £29.2 billion in 2013 (total turnover).