SRA

• You get what you pay for: the SRA and the minimum salary
  Posted on May 9, 2012 by Louise Restell
  This week, it appears, I am regulator bashing. It’s not much of a sport as it’s so easy to do, but hey, we all have to get our kicks somewhere. Yesterday I was rather disparaging about the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) website for consumers. Today I am taking them to task over their ‘consultation’ on whether to scrap the minimum salary for trainee solicitors.
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  Posted in: Employment law
  Tagged: diversity, law graduates, law students, legal profession, LETR, minimum salary, social mobility, SRA, training contracts
• Mind the gap: why the SRA's consumer information falls short
  Posted on May 8, 2012 by Louise Restell
  Thanks to the typical English bank holiday weather over the weekend I barely ventured out of the house and instead found myself working. Sad but inevitable. It’s also a bit sad that as a ‘consumer champion’ it was only in May 2012 that I came across a report on consumer attitudes towards the purchase of legal services published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in February 2011.
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  Posted in: Legal services
  Tagged: consumers, lawyers, Legal Ombudsman, legal services, legal services consumer panel, regulation, solicitors, SRA
• Whatever happened to the big bang?
  Posted on April 5, 2012 by Louise Restell
  As if the disappearance of Spring and the return to a distinctly chilly feel wasn’t enough to dampen my spirits, just a cursory glance at the news in the last week has left me feeling a bit depressed: secret courts, government snooping proposals, a 15-year old killing his mother with a hammer, even ‘pastygate’ and the hosepipe ban. There’s not a lot to be cheery about.
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  Posted in: Legal services
  Tagged: ABS, BSB, lawyers, Legal Ombudsman, legal services, LeO, LSB, public legal education, SRA
• Can lawyers learn anything from Apple?
  Posted on October 6, 2011 by Louise Restell
  So this morning when I woke up, still in the fog of sleep, I thought I must have stepped back in time. Coming from my radio, without, it seemed, a hint of irony, was a discussion about whether lawyers should be allowed to operate for profit . Actually, it was more of a parallel-universe feeling than a going-back-in-time one because I’m pretty sure lawyers have been parting people from their cash since advocates in ancient Rome realised there was money in winning arguments.
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  Posted in: Legal services
  Tagged: ABS, alternative business structures, consumers, high street, innovation, law society, legal services act, LSB, SRA