The fine print: what the Independent Review Panel has recommended

Reweti Kohere

■ Establishing a new, independent regulator that isn’t a Crown entity or subject to ministerial direction

■ New governance structure of eight board members, with four lawyer members and four public members, and with at least two members having strong te ao Māori insights. A public member will chair the new board.

■ The Minister of Justice will appoint the board on advice from a nominations panel made up of consumer representatives, governance experts and members of the legal profession.

■ NZLS continues as a national representative body, having a single governance layer with a board comprising eight to 10 members, including from the public.

■ Incorporating Te Tiriti o Waitangi and regulatory objectives into a new regulatory framework and updating lawyers’ fundamental obligations

■ Those exercising powers and performing functions and duties must give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti.

■ New regulatory objectives will be set out, including the overarching objective to protect and promote the public interest.

■ Requiring lawyers to promote and protect their clients’ interests and adding a new obligation to maintain their competence and fitness to practise.

■ Reforming the scope of regulation

■ Regulatory focus remains on lawyers and conveyancers, rather than extending it to unregulated legal service providers.

■ A new “freelance” practising model will be introduced, allowing lawyers to provide services to the public in non-reserved areas without needing the regulator’s prior approval.

■ Employed lawyers can provide pro bono services to the public in non-reserved areas.

■ Accepting new business structures where non-lawyers can have ownership stakes in law firms and lawyers can enter legal partnerships with non-lawyers.

■ Directly regulating law firms, with new firm-level obligations.

■ Enabling the regulator to better protect consumers, support practitioners and assure competence through new tools and powers, including suspending practising certificates.

■ Reforming the complaints system

■ In-house specialist staff will assess and determine complaints, rather than Standards Committees volunteers.

■ Formal investigative and disciplinary processes will be reserved for matters requiring a disciplinary response from the regulator.

■ Complaints about fees, delay, poor communication and other “consumer matters” will go through a dispute resolution process.

■ The identities of lawyers who engage in “unsatisfactory conduct” will not be publicly disclosed other than in exceptional circumstances, with naming reserved for cases where lawyers are found guilty of “misconduct”.

■ A small review committee will replace the independent Legal Complaints Review Officer.

■ Lawyers will be subject to a new duty to ensure complaints are dealt with promptly, fairly and free of charge.

■ Encouraging diversity and inclusion

■ The regulator must encourage “an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession” and have a competence-based board reflecting diversity.

■ Removing regulatory barriers that are having a discriminatory effect.

■ The regulator will have new powers to collect data on diversity from law firms, with aggregate data published on trends within the profession. ■