Miscellaneous
Section 48 – Law Society of Scotland
123.This section—
requires the Law Society to prepare its rules for authorising and regulating legal businesses under section 41 within such period (not exceeding three years) as it may agree with the Lord President, and
allows the Law Society to use its powers to make rules under the 1980 Act (as amended by Part 2 of schedule 1) to authorise and regulate legal businesses under Part 2.
124.The Law Society’s ALB rules are invalid unless they have the prior approval of the Lord President.
Section 49 – Entities changing regulatory regime
125.This section caters for circumstances in which a licensed legal services provider (under Part 2 of the 2010 Act) becomes an authorised legal business under Part 3 of the Act, and circumstances in which the opposite happens. A body might need to change its regulatory regime in this way if, for example, it changes the way it is owned. By default, the body is deemed to continue to be regulated under the original regime for 90 days, but the new regulator may end the regulatory arrangement earlier than this. This arrangement also ends if the body ceases to be regulated under the new regime (whatever the reason might be). This allows for a smooth regulatory handover from the original regime to the new regime.