Regulator pushes for more CILEx practice rights and ABS entitlement
updated on 24 August 2012
The regulator for chartered legal executives is pushing for powers to award greater practising rights, in a move that marks the first step toward enabling chartered legal executives to establish their own practices. ILEX Professional Standards (IPS) has also conducted consultations with a view to becoming a regulatory option for alternative business structures (ABSs).
IPS wants to gain powers to allow chartered legal executives to provide conveyancing, litigation and probate services without the requirement to be supervised by a solicitor. As reported by Legal Futures, the regulator plans to extend chartered legal executives' advocacy rights so that they can advocate independently of solicitors. It also seeks to apply its current advocacy framework to litigation, splitting litigation rights into family, civil and criminal certificates. Already a regulator of immigration legal services, IPS has been commended by the Legal Services Board for its plans to formalise its role further. It is also looking to expand its remit by pushing for the right to regulate will writers who are not chartered legal executives, which would ensure that possibilities are open for ABSs.
Alan Kershaw, chairman of IPS, said: "Consultation on these critical issues is a decisive step in our drive to secure for chartered legal executives the independent practice rights which have long been their due. There can be no doubt that a CILEx member, within the scope of the work they do, is fully as competent as a solicitor doing similar work. There is no longer any case for denying them the right to practise in their own names and, if they wish, to set up their own firms offering legal services. IPS has shown itself well able to assess competence in the legal specialties, and to intervene when a legal firm is failing. We have some innovative ideas and, by offering an attractive alternative to existing schemes, aim to become the regulator of choice for legal firms, including ABSs in due course."
