Last week I attended a roundtable at the Ministry of Justice with my fellow regulators, where we received an update from the EU and Trade Policy team on the current Brexit timetable. We discussed what we felt could be the potential impacts on legal services regulation and how contingencies might be put in place to cater for the various exit scenarios.
We reflected that notwithstanding that we have been operating within the EU for 40 years +, it had still been a time of significant change for legal regulation. Brexit would therefore once more bring both challenges and opportunities to us all and how we adapt to that will be very important.
New technologies now drive different consumer behaviours. The government has made much of helping consumers to switch bank account more easily and quickly. Speaking to friends and colleagues, many have entertained this, telling me it’s almost as easy as switching energy supplier. I think many of us still believe it might be far too much hassle though, but the generation of millennials have much less brand loyalty than middle-aged fogeys like me.
Thinking about the legal sector, we have many different types of lawyer and many flexible routes into qualification as a lawyer or legal professional. The CILEx apprenticeship route is currently booming. But like switching bank or energy supplier, we need to raise awareness of the options and encourage more people, like me, to take a leap of faith and do it. The rewards are there if we look for them. There are many useful websites we can all access which help us with our switching options. Currently this doesn’t extend to switching professional services, such as professional body or regulator, but I’m sure in the near future it might. But the rise and growth of comparison websites for legal services is steady. So whether you are a consumer thinking about buying a legal service, or a law firm thinking about switching regulator, take a few minutes to shop around and see what’s out there. The market is changing and there is more choice now than ever.