Solicitors do not work alone. Every day a solicitor shares the legal market with conveyancers, legal executives, specialist attorneys, notaries, paralegals and others — some tightly regulated, some not regulated at all. Knowing who may lawfully do what, and when a client is protected, matters when you advise, refer work, or supervise. Get the boundaries wrong and you risk steering a client toward someone acting unlawfully or without recourse.
This lesson maps the whole landscape so you can place each professional in context.
What this lesson covers:
- The Regulatory Framework — the divide between reserved and unreserved activities, who may carry out reserved work, and the consequences of crossing the line.
- Conveyancers and Legal Executives — who regulates them and exactly what each is authorised to do.
- Specialist Attorneys and Notaries — the regulators and roles of patent and trade mark attorneys, and the function of a notary public.
- Unregulated Providers and Paralegals — will-writing and other unreserved services, the protections clients lose, and the limits on paralegals.
- McKenzie Friends — what they may and may not do for a litigant in person, and when a court can grant them a right of audience.