The Government will shortly advertise a vacancy for the first chief executive of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority after the Cabinet approved amendments to draft law overhauling the legal professions.

The amendments will be tabled tomorrow by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald at the start of the committee stage debate in the Seanad on the Legal Services Regulation Bill. This legislation was first published in 2011 but Ms Fitzgerald now hopes to complete enactment by Christmas.

Stakeholders’ groups will be put on notice shortly that the Government will ask them to make nominations to the board of the new authority once the legislation is enacted.

The amendments settled at Cabinet yesterday allow the established professional bodies for barristers and solicitors to retain many of their powers. However, the Government is understood to be insisting that there is enough in the new regime to curtail legal costs.

The introduction of the new authority will end centuries of self-regulation by the Law Society and the Bar Council.

Built into the legislation are provisions for a review of legal costs after two years, with a focus on competition and consumer issues, as well as an assessment on how well the new system is working.

Same partnership

Solicitors and barristers will be allowed to work alongside each other in the same partnership one year after the new regime comes into force.

In addition, the law will contain new rules dealing with the calculation of junior counsels’ fees as a percentage of senior counsels’ fees.

The Bar Council will retain its power to refuse membership of the Law Library to barristers in employment, partnerships or new business models. However, barristers operating outside the Bar Council will be allowed to establish a new professional body for recognition by the Minister.