A number of issues face legal services regulation in leading jurisdictions. Among the most salient are the following:
— What are the main contributing factors to regulatory change in the subject jurisdictions and what factors tend to impede change ?
— Are there common themes in jurisdictional responses ?
— Does the pattern and extent of change represent a paradigmatic shift ?
— What are the implications for the future regulation of lawyers and legal services ?
The chapter is structured around these themes. It uses the evidence from the countries and jurisdictions that are the subject of this book to explore the forces behind regulatory change, its current direction and emerging practice. The broad conclusion is that various pressures for regulatory reform may cause legal professionalism to finally fail. This may not result from a single change but as a result of an accumulation of regulatory innovations. These may lead to a transition to a different regulatory logic for managing legal services. Strategies that may assist legal professions in avoiding this fate are outlined. Except as otherwise stated, references to authors, countries and jurisdictions in this chapter are references to the material in this book
