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Global Law Firms Conclave
Bhubaneswar
10 August 2015
When the Revolution Comes:
Innovation and Regulated Disruption in
the Legal Services Market
Julian Webb
1
Regulatory reform
• Key driver: national and supra-national
competition policy (trade in services)
• Competing models of legal services
regulation:
– Professional-independent
– Consumer-competitive
• Rethinking how legal services regulation
functions in the public interest
– Greater emphasis on external regulation
– Enhancing competition in the consumer interest
• Regulation as a tool of creative disruption and innovation
Australia 1990s to date
• Federated system, so a mixed picture, but…
• Moves towards independent oversight/co-
regulation
• Authorisation of new business models (MDPs
and ILPs)
• Harmonisation of laws to facilitate multi-state
practice (now new LPUL in Vic/NSW)
• Use of ethics audits and other new regulatory
tools to encourage good business practices
England and Wales: Legal Services Act 2007
• Market liberalisation rather than deregulation
• Dual system of oversight and frontline regulation, with separation of regulatory and representative functions
• Complex regulatory system of multiple regulators with mix of individual and entity regulation
• Facilitates a limited market in regulation (regulatory competition)
• “ABS”: Relaxation of ownership rules for law firms and facilitation of MDPs : over 300 ABS in England now
• Focus on risk and assuring competence: increased significance of internal (firm-level) compliance structures and on relevant continuing education and training (LETR)
Introduction of regulatory objectives (s.1)
(1) In this Act a reference to “the regulatory objectives” is a
reference to the objectives of—
(a) protecting and promoting the public interest;
(b) supporting the constitutional principle of the rule of law;
(c) improving access to justice;
(d) protecting and promoting the interests of consumers;
(e) promoting competition in the provision of services within
subsection (2);
(f) encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective
legal profession;
(g) increasing public understanding of the citizen's legal rights
and duties;
(h) promoting and maintaining adherence to the professional
principles.
Is it working?
• Very little research data so far
• Slater & Gordon (Aus)
– National personal injury/private client firm; first law firm to
float as public co.
– Expansion into UK market in 2012; now 7th largest
international law firm in the UK with revenue exceeding ₤100
Million
• Riverview Law (UK)
– Established 2012 converted to ABS in 2014
– Fixed-price “managed service solutions” to commercial
sector
– New ways of working with clients
– Heavy investment in new technology and R&D
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