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By Michael Scutt, 25/11/2009 10:30 am

Three things connected with Tesco Law caught my eye last week and we saw some interesting developments in the liberalisation of the legal profession, aka the legal services industry. 

Firstly, On the 18th November, the Legal Services Board (“LSB”) published its consultation paper “Alternative Business Structures: approaches to licensing”  .  The LSB will become the regulator of the regulators when ABSs come into existence in 2011..  The Act contains eight “regulatory objectives” and five “professional principles”. There will be several frontline regulators and barristers could be regulated by the SRA, Solicitors by the Institute of Legal Executives and Legal Executives by the Archbishop of Canterbury(apparently he is not only the supreme authority in the Church of England but he also oversees Notary Publics when he isn’t trying to prevent the Pope from half-inching his dioceses).  The regulatory structure seems overly complicated.

In the meantime, pending the new structures coming into force, the LSB needs to set rules for how the frontline regulators will apply the new core principles enshrined in the LSA.  They are a bit “motherhood and apple pie” in nature; for instance Part 1 1(1) sets out the regulatory objectives.  They are

(a) protecting and promoting the public interest

(b) supporting the constitutional principle of the rule of law

(c) improving access to justice (haven’t we seen this elsewhere?)

(d) protecting and promoting the interests of consumers

(e) promoting competition in the provision of services (by authorised persons)

(f) encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession (stop laughing at the back there)

(g) increasing public understanding of the citizen’s legal rights and duties

(h) promoting and maintaining adherence to the professional principles

S.3 states the “professional principles” that apply to “authorised persons” who should;

(a) act with independence and integrity

(b) maintain proper standards of work

(c) act in the best interests of their clients

(d) (in litigation) comply with their duty to the court  to act with independence in the interests of justice, and

(e) keep client affairs confidential

All good stuff and hard to disagree with the sentiments expressed, save that many in the profession will give a hollow laugh to 1(1)(f) above. The consultation paper seeks to put these principles into practice and in the foreword the Chairman of the LSB David Edmonds states that the LSB doesn’t want to regulate ABSs themselves, that is a job for the “front-line” regulators such as the SRA, the Bar Standards Board and ILEX, to take three.   The consultation paper is 113 pages long and I must confess to not having read it yet.  It’s next on the list. 

Secondly, another document on my reading list is “The Big Bang report – opportunities and threats in the new legal services market“ compiled by the Byfield Consultancy.  It was launched at the offices of City law firm Fox Williams LLP last Thursday to an audience of the great and the good.  I went along as well.     The report has the advantage of being only 42 pages long and contains an overview of the history of the LSA and the impetus behind it, as well as interviews with some of the main players.  

Finally, the Bar Standards Board announced last week that barristers would be allowed to join Legal Disciplinary Partnerships (LDPs) as managers (but preferably not as shareholders) in LDPs with up to 25% non-lawyer managers, be regulated by the SRA and not be required to requalify as a solicitor.  The BSB hasn’t given the green light to barristers joining ABSs; that must wait until 2010 at the earliest when more consultation has occurred.  Barrister only partnerships will be allowable (at the moment barristers practicing from chambers are all self-employed).   This decision is of historic significance – it could mark the end of the Bar as we know it. 

I will be reading the above reports and blogging on them again in due course, once the current deluge of work in my day job has calmed down.  We are now entering the beginning of the festive season when many employers like to present their staff with a gift of a compromise agreement and a visit to an independent solicitor to be told their rights.  The next few weeks look like being particularly busy this year.

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By Michael Scutt, 08/10/2009 4:26 pm

Ok, imagine the scenario.  You’re told on Friday morning at 9.35 a.m to go to the 7^th floor and meet Siobhan, your HR generalist.  Only HR live on the 7^th floor, not real people.  You go into a meeting room with her and there is Charles, your line manager or maybe Fiona, who is really quite senior in HR but not usually seen during the hours of daylight.  You’re handed a lengthy letter and told that your role is at risk of redundancy.  What do you do?

Answer: try and get as much information out of Siobhan and Charles/Fiona as you can.  What to ask?

1. What is the company doing?  Is it a restructure/rationalization/other reason.
2. Why you?  Crucial – why is your role in the organization no longer needed? 
3. What will happen to your work once you’ve gone?  Will it be divided up amongst remaining people/sent to Bangalore/no longer needed because the business is getting out of that sector?
4. Who else is at risk?  If your role is a unique one and a layer of management is being stripped out of the organisation, this is less relevant.  But, see next one down. What is the selection criteria they are using? 
5. What is the selection criteria they are using? If there are ten in your team and five are being put at risk, how has the company decided you should be placed at risk, but not Tony who sits next to you?  Selection criteria must be objective as far as possible.
6. What is your score against the criteria?
7. How did your comparators score?  Usually HR won’t give you this information because of confidentiality reasons, but you can ask to be given it on an anonymised basis.
8. How many people in your “establishment” are being placed at risk?  If more than 20 or 100 then time limits for consultation apply.  Get suspicious if HR won’t tell you.
9.  What other roles are available?  Redundancy should be the last resort.  Employers should try and exhaust all other possibilities before dismissing you.  Have they thought of pay-cuts or unpaid leave, or could they redeploy you to another part of the business, making use of your transferable skills?
10. What is the timescale for the process?  When will the decision be made?  When will we have the next meeting?

Finally, the 11^th question: where can I get some good legal advice on my rights?  Answer: here.

I can help you with all these issues, or advise you if you’ve been given a compromise agreement.  Please call me on 0207 464 8433 or at michaelscutt@dalelangley.co.uk.

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By michaelscutt, 29/07/2009 3:23 pm

In my day job I am a Partner in the above firm. We have recently relaunched our website and have started a Dale Langley blog.  Initial comments have been favourable.  I have just posted an article on a case concerning compromise agreements and why you should not delay in negotiating the terms or signing off.  Please click here to go to the article.

I have also written on compromise agreements and what they are before – click here  to read more.

As ever, if you would like me to help please contact me at michaelscutt@dalelangley.co.uk

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By michaelscutt, 06/12/2008 11:27 pm

Judging from the traffic on this site, redundancy is the big employment law issue at the moment and not surprisingly given the current climate. 1,000 job losses announced this week at Nomura, 650 at Credit Suisse and that on top of the losses at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers. In my day job I am seeing plenty of people from investment banks and beyond, all with concerns and queries about either being told they’ve been selected for redundancy or are at risk. If you’re one of those people what do you need to know?

1. Are you an employee? Most employment protection legislation (apart from that involving discrimination issues) only covers employees and not self-employed people, for instance.

2. How long have you been continuously employed by your employer? To be able to claim a redundancy payment you need two years continuous employment experience. If you have this then you are entitled to be paid a “statutory redundancy payment” (SRP) in addition to your notice monies. SRP is not generous – £330 per complete year of service if you’re between 22-41 and £495 if you’re over 41. Your notice entitlement will be as set out in your contract of employment or as stipulated by the Employment Rights Act 1996 – basically 1 week per year of service up to a maximum of twelve weeks (four weeks notice minimum to be given by the employer once the employee has one month’s service).

3. If you have more than one year’s continuous employment experience then you have acquired the right not to be unfairly dismissed. This is a big topic but, in brief, it may allow you to argue that your selection for redundancy was unfair.

4. Have you been discriminated against? There are six main grounds for discrimination – race, sex, age, disability, religious belief and sexual orientation in addition to other grouds such as being subject to less favourable treatment because of being a fixed time or part-time worker. In addition whistleblowing is another type of claim that might be available. Remember it is your role that needs to be redundant, not you. What will happen to the work you do once you’ve left?

5. Most of the employees I see have been given a compromise agreement by their employer and they need an independent solicitor to advise them on their legal rights under the agreement. I have written elsewhere in this blog on compromise agreements and the issues they raise – see the page headed “compromise agreements” on the tab at the head of this blog for more information. One main reason why employers offer compromise agreements is that they want the employee to waive their rights to sue for unfair dismissal, discrimination, breach of contract etc. This is particularly the case if the employer is offering an enhanced package (in the City this is often, but not always, one month’s full pay per year of service).

6. If you have been given a compromise agreement then you will need to have it reviewed by a solicitor; give me a call if you want me to help. If you are unhappy about your selection or want further advice, get to see a solicitor and get some advice.

7. It is always helpful when seeing a new client to see the contract of employment, all correspondence relating to the redundancy situation and, of course, the compromise agreement.

Please call me on 0207 464 8433 or email me at michaelscutt@dalelangley.co.uk if I can help you at all.