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The
opportunities for non-lawyers in the UK legal business
are rapidly expanding thanks to a flurry of reform
initiatives that, cumulatively, will change UK legal
landscape almost completely. The Legal Services Act
2007, among other things, will in 2012 permit
non-lawyers such as IT or litigation support
professionals to become managers and equity holders in
those UK law firms that choose to incorporate. The Act
generally followed the recommendations contained in the
2004
Review
of the Regulatory Framework for Legal Services in
England and Wales, Final Report,
submitted by Sir David Clementi to the Secretary of
State for Constitutional Affairs.
During
the next couple of years the new regulatory body for
solicitors, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority will
offer additional routes to becoming a solicitor.
Further, the Compensation Act 2006 — which effectively
gave a government seal of approval for non-lawyers to
engage in actions that previously been the preserve of
solicitors — is beginning to produce results, greatly
increasing the number of paralegal advisory firms
offering their services to business and individuals.
Finally, the reforms to the UK’s publically funded legal
services scheme as suggested by Lord Carter will over
the next two to three years lead to a growth in the
number of non-lawyers, such as IT or litigation support
professionals, providing legal services to the public.
Under
the Solicitors Act 1974, certain activities were
"reserved activities;" i.e., solicitors had a monopoly
right to provide those services — with litigation being
one of them. However, since 1974 that monopoly has been
constantly circumscribed (death of monopoly by a
thousand exemptions…), and the above-mentioned reforms
will still further push IT and litigation support
professionals center stage.
Today
in the UK, non-lawyers can provide any legal service
other than higher-court litigation, conveyancing and
disposition of estates in probate. This has already led
to non-lawyers representing clients in matters such as
housing, immigration, divorce, welfare and criminal. One
of the driving forces behind all these reforms has been
the UK government’s desire to promote the use of lower
costing personnel where appropriate so as to reduce the
cost of legal services, increase access and introduce a
more consumer-orientated focus into a profession widely
perceived by those in government as elitist. However, a
major limiting factor at present is that in the absence
of proper national training and career structures for
non-lawyers, there is likely to be a significant
short-fall in the supply of adequately trained
non-lawyer personnel.
James
O’Connell is chief executive of the Institute of
Paralegals. The Institute’s mission is to help provide
training and certification to “paralegals” a term which
may have different meaning in the U.S. compared to the
UK. In the U.S., paralegals are typically viewed as
performing tasks under the supervision of a lawyer
whereas in the UK, paralegals do this but also provide
legal services directly for other non-lawyer employers
or to their own clients through their own paralegal
advisory firms where there is no direct lawyer
involvement, let alone supervision. Already the largest
supplier of publically funded legal services in the UK
is a voluntary paralegal organization called Citizens
Advice.
The
Institute was founded in 2003 as the not-for-profit
Paralegal Association and was able to demonstrate a
quality of work that enabled it in 2005 to be approved
by government to use the term “Institute.” It is now
taking the lead in the creation of National Competency
Standards and a National Training Framework for legal
and litigation support staff. It has also partnered with
a UK government approved National Awarding Body, to
create and issue nationally and internationally
recognized qualifications designed for legal and
litigation support staff: the Legal Professional
Qualification (LPQ™) suite of awards. In response to
requests from law firms, where professional standards of
performance and conduct are increasingly being demanded
of support staff working in a team environment, the
Institute differentiates between “paralegals” who
perform legal services and “support staff” who support
those who provide the services, although the Institute
provides training and promotes professional recognition
and respect for both groups.
Part
of the Institute’s mission is to provide a national
training framework so that people who are interested in
being a paralegal or a legal support staff member have a
route into the profession and to also provide a
certification process for those who can demonstrate that
they meet national competency standards. The Institute
has completed legal secretary standards and
qualifications and is working on the same for
paralegals, with dedicated standards and qualifications
for forensic litigation support staff under
consideration.
Whilst
it is true that the UK lags behind the U.S. in terms of
recognition of IT or litigation support professionals,
it is equally true that matters are developing there at
a furious pace. The role of IT or litigation support
professionals will only increase, with ever more
sophisticated litigious work being handled by
paralegals. This move towards ever-more litigious work
being handled by paralegals is also reflected in the
criminal court system. The UK government’s centralized
equivalent of District Attorneys, the Crown Prosecution
Service, is pushing for ever greater rights of audience
and conduct for its litigation paralegals, known as
caseworkers.
Litigation support professionals are currently under the
spotlight, with the Institute of Paralegals engaged in
dialogue with the government to try and formalize the
ever-increasing role of IT or litigation support
professionals in the civil court system. Formal rules
concerning rights of audience before the courts and
extensive UK tribunal network have not kept pace with
events at the coal-face, and issues such as what level
of costs the losing party should pay the winning party
are themselves coming under scrutiny as litigation
support professionals adopt an ever-higher profile in
the system.
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