Chair’s Board update May 2022

Jonathan Rees, CILEx Regulation Chair

Our second full Board meeting of the year took place in a very sunny Stratford-on-Avon, and we reviewed an action packed first 4 months of the year, as well as looking forward to our continuing plans to reform and update the regulatory system. A few highlights:

• We had our first discussions on setting the Practising Fee Certificate for 2023 and considered what changes we could make so that we could for the first time in a long while reduce the PCF for Fellows. Consultations on our approach will follow in July.
• We also considered what we could do to make it easier for Fellows and others to set up their own law firm, especially as Sole Traders, and will be coming forward in the summer with our plans for a “Law Firm in a Box” so that we provide the right package of support and regulation at an affordable price. We also discussed our ongoing consultation on changes to the Consumer Compensation arrangements.
• On CPD, we were pleased to learn that considerable progress has been made to improve compliance, with only 58 Fellows now behind with their returns. We will follow these up individually. We also noted the good work the team has been doing with UK Finance, ICAEW and others to tackle discrimination faced by non-Solicitor probate practitioners in dealing with High Street banks and accessing lender panels and will continue our efforts on these fronts.
• We welcomed the decision by the Legal Services Board to approve the alternative route through University of Law for established Fellows to obtain additional practice rights and noted the considerable interest we had already received.
• Finally, we received a report on the well-attended and successful Roundtable we hosted in March on promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and agreed next steps in line with our Strategy to promote better progression by CILEX members.

Our next planned Board catch-up is on 9 June with our next full meeting on 13 July.

Full meeting details can be found on our website.