ABSTRACT
The legal profession in the United Kingdom is undergoing a period of regulatory and constitutional reforms. These reforms have culminated in the passage of the Legal Services Act 2007. This Act implemented a single regulatory oversight entity with authority over all categories of legal service providers. Three driving forces lay behind the eventual legislation: (1) competition policy to improve the availability and quality of legal services; (2) elimination of trade barriers that restricted innovative forms of practice, making way for ‘alternative business structures’; and (3) consumer protection concerns with the existing discipline and complaint handling systems run by the respective professional associations.
