Becoming a Partner
The Legal Services Act 2007 amends statutory powers of the
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) – the independent regulatory
organisation of the Law Society – to enable it to regulate legal
disciplinary practices (LDPs), that is firms in which solicitors
can join with other types of lawyers and have up to 25% of
non-lawyers as managers.
Fellows of the Institute of Legal Executives will be ‘authorised
persons’ under the Act and so will be able to become a partner
(director/shareholder in a company or member in an LLP) in an
SRA-authorised firm, as will barristers, licensed conveyancers,
notaries, patents and trade mark agents and law cost draftsmen. The
Council for Licensed Conveyancers already has more flexible
statutory powers than the SRA, but its powers have been amended in
broadly the same way as those of the SRA.
The move requires changes to the professional rules to be
considered by the legal services consultative panel, which advises
the Lord Chancellor on such matters, as well as the Office of Fair
Trading and senior judges, before final approval by the Lord
Chancellor. The rules have now been lodged with the Ministry of
Justice (MoJ) for approval, where they will receive appropriate
scrutiny before they are formally approved.
Subject to government approval of the rules, the SRA hopes
that LDPs will be possible from 1 March 2009.