Interesting podcast on Australia’s ABC website…
A unified Australian legal profession
Podcast Link
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2010/2881255.htm
Australia is moving towards a single national legal profession. Right now lawyers are regulated at the state and territory level by about 55 different organisations.
Streamlining sounds simple, but in fact there are big questions, like who would regulate a national body? Lawyers want to keep their independence from government but consumers want to open up the shop and avoid ‘Caesar judging Caesar
Also at the same url….
Associate Professor Adrian Evans was interviewed about moves towards a single national legal profession. Adrian has very strong views on how regulatory schemes are currently funded here in Australia. Adrian is highly critical of the use of interest generated by client trust accounts for various purposes including regulatory schemes. We didn’t have time to include this part of our discussion in the radio broadcast – but I’m sure you’ll agree Adrian raises some very interesting ideas.