The Legal Services Board (LSB) has today published the findings of its review into guidance provided to the legal profession on the conduct of litigation. The review was carried out in close partnership with approved regulators and regulatory bodies, working together in the public interest to understand what happened previously and identify practical steps to strengthen the consistency of guidance for the profession and to protect consumers.
The review was prompted by the High Court judgment in Mazur (September 2025) and the Court of Appeal’s clarification (March 2026) that unauthorised individuals may conduct litigation under the supervision of an authorised person.
The LSB found that while regulators responded constructively and updated guidance following the judgments, previous advice to the profession had varied in clarity and consistency. The review also identified that in 2022, when regulators developed differing interpretations of the Act, there was insufficient cross-regulator engagement to resolve that inconsistency.
Several regulators had assessed the levels of non-compliance with the Act to be low or insignificant within their regulated communities. However, the LSB found that these assessments may have been undermined by limited knowledge of how supervision of unauthorised individuals was operating in practice.
The High Court judgment had a significant impact on professionals in the sector. Some firms reassigned work, and some individuals lost jobs, retired early, or faced demotion. The LSB recognises the significance of this for those affected.
The LSB also acknowledges there were opportunities to identify and address some of these issues sooner. This review is part of a broader commitment to more proactive oversight to ensure the regulatory system is better placed to respond to emerging issues of this kind.
The response from regulators since the Court of Appeal judgment has been encouraging. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Law Society, CILEx Regulation (CRL), the Costs Lawyer Standards Board, IPReg, and ICAEW have all published updated guidance. The Law Society and CILEX have held webinars to help the profession understand what the ruling means in practice.
In October 2025, the LSB granted CRL’s application to facilitate standalone litigation rights. Since then, over 1,000 chartered legal executives have secured litigation practice rights, enabling them to conduct litigation without supervision.
To build on this progress and address the wider issues identified, the LSB has identified the following actions for regulators:
- Provide clear guidance on what adequate supervision looks like in routine and higher-risk cases
- Share draft guidance on reserved legal activities with a wider range of regulators before publication, to support consistency
- Collect better data on the frequency and volume of reserved legal activities within their regulated communities
- Strengthen assurance processes to identify and address regulatory risks more proactively
In further action, the LSB will undertake a review of guidance across other reserved legal activities to identify and address any similar inconsistencies. This work reflects the LSB’s broader shift towards proactive, risk-based oversight to identify issues of this kind before they escalate.
Richard Orpin, Chief Executive at the LSB, said:
“To ensure that consumers and the public are well protected, it is critical that guidance to legal professionals is clear, consistent, and underpinned by robust regulatory assurance. I am encouraged by how constructively regulators have engaged since the judgment and by the steps already taken. But there is more to do, and we will work alongside regulators to make sure the actions we’ve identified are delivered.”
ENDS
About the review
- The report, “Regulatory review of advice and guidance provided to the profession on the conduct of litigation by approved regulators and regulatory bodies”, is available on the LSB website.
- The review covered the period from 1 January 2010 until 24 October 2025. This is from when the relevant provisions of the Act (including those concerning the reserved legal activity of the conduct of litigation) came into force up to after the High Court Mazur judgment.
- Initial findings were published on 29 January 2026 in our interim report. The interim report provided regulators and stakeholders with information to inform further action to help strengthen their regulatory approaches.