ICAEW: legal services bill 'blocks multi-disciplinary practices'

ICAEW warns that current legislative plans could mean accountants will not be able to operate fully in MDPs until 2011

Written by Kevin Reed

Accountancy Age, 23 May 2007

Advisers looking to operate multi-disciplinary practices will have to wait until 2011 due to the wording of the legal services bill, warns the ICAEW.

The institute has criticised lawmakers over the content of the bill currently going through parliament, arguing that the wording slows up the provision of a more open market for legal services.

Caron Bradshaw, business law manager at the ICAEW , said the bill did not include a system to allow firms that want accountants and lawyers as partners to be created more quickly.

Brashaw said a system where low-risk business structures can provide legal services, such as a firm containing a combination of legal and accounting professionals, should be introduced more easily than those containing non-professionals.

Bradshaw is unhappy that the Department of Constitutional Affairs does not expect accountants to be able to work in MDPs until 2011, as all structures are treated as the same in the bill.

'The DCA should have attempted some type of risk scale, they've not considered the professional standing [of an MDP],' said Bradshaw.