Who regulates solicitors, under what standards, and with what powers — the structure of legal services regulation in England and Wales from oversight body to disciplinary tribunal.
Behind every professional obligation sits a chain of regulators, each with its own remit and its own teeth. This chapter begins with the Legal Services Act 2007 — the Legal Services Board, the approved regulators and the eight regulatory objectives — before separating The Law Society's representative role from the SRA's regulatory one, including the licensing of alternative business structures. It then works through the SRA Standards and Regulations, the seven Principles and how they rank when they conflict, and what honesty, integrity and independence each demand of a solicitor. Finally it traces what happens when things go wrong: the split between service complaints to the Legal Ombudsman and conduct matters, the SRA's enforcement and intervention powers, and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal with its sanctions, its standard of proof and the route of appeal.
