Dr. Brian Doherty:

We are indeed still awaiting developments on that front but it is imminent. On the introduction of legal partnerships, there was an amendment required to the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 before that framework could be put in place. That amendment was made in June 2023 and we now have a number of regulations and a framework for the introduction of legal partnerships, which is being considered by the authority at its meeting on Thursday of this week. Following that, there will be a new set of legal partnership regulations, an amended set of limited liability partnership regulations, an amended set of professional indemnity insurance regulations and a new code of practice for practising barristers, all of which will allow for the introduction of legal partnerships which we are hoping to happen in quarter 4 of this year. It has not commenced yet, but it will.

The LSRA has committed that once legal partnerships are bedded in and the process and framework is working correctly, it will then revisit the introduction of multi-disciplinary practices whereby legal practitioners may go into practice with other professions such as accountants or architects. It is still in train.