We began our July meeting by reflecting on our recent engagement event in Manchester. I would like to thank our hosts, speakers, and attendees for welcoming us so warmly and sharing their views so generously.
We came away with many insights to consider, including those of Fiona Ledden, President of Manchester Law Society, who kindly allowed us to share her speech.
Our next event will be in London on 16 September. You can find out more and book your place here.
Diversity in the legal profession
We moved on to an important area of the LSB’s work: encouraging diversity in the legal profession.
Evidence shows that barriers to equality and diversity within the legal profession persist. As such, we agreed to launch a public consultation this autumn on a draft policy statement which would aim to drive action among regulators. This reflects our statutory objective under the Legal Services Act 2007 and reflects the Board’s ambition for a profession that truly represents the public it serves.
The draft policy sets out four outcomes for regulators to work towards. These outcomes are underpinned by specific expectations, some of which would be essential for all regulators, others would show enhanced leadership and innovation. We want to see collaborative, evidence-based, and strategic action from regulators, while allowing them the flexibility to tailor their approaches to the communities they oversee.
It was encouraging to see strong engagement earlier this year in our preliminary discussions about this work. There is real momentum for change, and regulators have powerful tools – both formal powers and the ability to influence – to help break down the systemic and cultural barriers that have hindered progress for too long. This is about fairness, as well as improving services for consumers and in the public interest.
I look forward to launching the consultation later this year and continuing our collective effort to build a more inclusive and effective legal profession.
Monitoring improvements at the Bar Standards Board (BSB)
In April, following our most recent assessment of its performance, the Board agreed to progress informal action against the BSB. We invited the BSB to agree voluntary undertakings to address shortcomings identified in the assessment.
In this meeting, we discussed progress on developing these undertakings, which we hope to publish shortly.
Governance and oversight updates
The rest of the meeting covered our regular governance and oversight responsibilities. This included:
- working towards the acceptance criteria we will use to review the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC)’s annual budget
- an update from our Remuneration and Nomination Committee (RNC)
- a review of our corporate risk register.
We will shortly publish, as we do for each Board meeting, a notice of all decisions made.
Catherine Brown
Interim Chair of the LSB
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