Abstract
This chapter focuses more closely on the immediate professional background in the 1980s to the establishment of the LSO. It charts the fortunes of the divided legal profession and in particular the challenges to self-regulation. At the centre of the discussion is the rise to prominence of consumer protection as a rival to professional discipline. This shift in emphasis culminated in direct government intervention in 1989, with reform proposals for the legal profession at large and for its self-regulatory system in particular, whereby John Major’s Conservative government sought to replace professional discipline with the discipline of the market. The LSO emerged as a complement to the surviving self-regulatory process and as a form of joint regulation alongside the legal profession in both its main branches.
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Notes
- 1.
The “umbrella” is in effect the Legal Services Board. This was established by the Legal Services Act 2007 as a single independent oversight regulator, responsible for ensuring high standards of competence, conduct and service in the legal profession, and responsible for supervising the existing regulators of the legal professions.
- 2.
For example, there are over 130,000 practising solicitors and nearly 16,000 barristers in practice.
- 3.
Lord Hailsham, HL Deb, vol 458, col. 825, 14 January 1985.
- 4.
Lord Chancellor, HL Deb, vol 458, col. 779, 14 January 1985.
- 5.
It was established in Cheltenham Spa, away from the Law Society’s main location in Chancery Lane, London.
- 6.
The monopoly on conveyancing, previously held by solicitors, had ended in 1985, but it only extended to licensed conveyancers. It remained an offence for anyone else to draw up or prepare documents connected with the transfer of title to property for payment.
- 7.
Lord Lane, the Lord Chief Justice, The Guardian, 17 February 1989.
- 8.
Sir Stephen Brown, President of the Family Division, The Times, 23 February 1989.
- 9.
Desmond Fennell, QC, Chairman of the Bar, The Guardian, 26 January 1989.
- 10.
The Lay Observer, an independent person appointed by the Lord Chancellor under section 45(1) of the Solicitors Act 1974, could examine allegations from members of the public about the Law Society’s handling of complaints against solicitors.
- 11.
HC Standing Committee D, cols 167, 177, 22 May 1990.
- 12.
For example, the Parliamentary and Local Government Ombudsmen had a limit of 12 months.
- 13.
Standing Committee D, col 177, 22 May 1990, Attorney General; HL Deb, vol 516, col 1674, 15 March 1990, Lord Chancellor.
- 14.
HL Deb Committee, vol 514, col 1294, 25 January 1990, Lord Coleraine; HL Deb Committee, vol 516, col 264, 20 February 1990, Lord Renton, Lord Boardmam; Standing Committee D, col 172, 22 May 1990, Mr Lawrence.
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O’Brien, N., Seneviratne, M. (2017). The LSO, Market Forces and the Challenge to Professional Self-Regulation in the 1980s. In: Ombudsmen at the Crossroads. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58446-5_3
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