Legal professionals are subject to no fewer than SEVEN professional regulators, whose names and functions are often referred to in a bewildering Scrabble tray of acronyms and abbreviations.

Apart from (1) the BSB which deals with barristers, (2) the SRA which deals with solicitors, and (3) the IPS which deals with legal executives and paralegals, there are also: (4) the CLSB for costs lawyers; (5) the CLC for conveyancers; and (6) the IPReg for trade mark attorneys and patent attorneys. Arching over all seven regulators is (7) the LSB.

To make life easier, their full and abbreviated names, together with those of professional associations and regulatory terminology, have all been set out in a glossary, below, to which we will link in future postings where relevant.

Glossary of Legal Regulatory Acronyms

ACL Association of Costs Lawyers
BSB Bar Standards Board, created by the Bar Council as the regulator of barristers
CIPA Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
CLC Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the regulator for licensed conveyancers
CLSB Costs Lawyer Standards Board, regulator for the ACL
CPD Continuing professional development, a system for ensuring professionals maintain their standards of competence
IPReg Intellectual Property Regulation Board, the regulator for ITMA and CIPA
IPS Ilex Professional Standards, the regulator of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
ITMA Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys
JAG Joint Advocacy Group, consisting of representatives of the BSB, SRA and IPS
LASPO Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, which brought in the current raft of cuts in legal aid services.
LSA 2007 Legal Services Act 2007
LSB Legal Services Board, the regulators’ regulator or über-regulator
NTA Non Trial Advocate (see also POA), an advocate who can only represent a client who pleads guilty (eg for mitigation).
OCOF One Case One Fee: the system under which an advocate is paid a flat fee regardless of the complexity or duration of the case
POA Plea Only Advocates: an advocate qualified only to represent a client who wishes to plead guilty (now renamed NTAs or Non Trial Advocates).
QASA Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates
SRA Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, created by the Law Society to regulate solicitors