SOLICITORS will issue a tough warning today that the proposed shake-up of the legal profession could see lawyers brought under government control.

The Law Society said the idea of creating a financial services-style regulator over lawyers posed the “most serious threat” to the profession’s independence.

It would increase legal costs to consumers and would undermine public confidence in the legal process, it says.

In a counter-offensive to options for reform outlined by Sir David Clementi in his review of legal services, the society accepts that the regulation of solicitors can be improved.

The society, which represents 120,000 solicitors in England and Wales, says in its response to Sir David’s options for reform: “A paramount consideration of the review must be the retention of a legal profession independent of the executive. An independent legal profession is an essential feature of a democratic state.”

The society welcomes proposals to lift the ban on solicitors and barristers setting up shop on legal multidisciplinary practices and for law firms to have non-lawyers as partners and investors.

It also accepts that this would mean clearer separation between the Law Society’s regulatory and representative functions. But the Law Society should be the regulator of new mixed law firms, it says.

The Law Society also says that Sir David’s most radical option, for a Legal Services Authority which would act as an over-arching regulator for the legal profession, would open the door to direct involvement by government in regulation.

“Solicitors frequently act as a bulwark between individuals and abuse of power, or maladministration by the State,” it says. “There must be no question that a government who was, say, subject to repeated successful judicial reviews of its policies, could be in a position to influence a disciplinary decision concerning a particular solicitor or barrister.”

Board members, it added, must not be subject to removal or appointment by government.

The society should continue as a first-tier regulator, with a “light touch” oversight from a Legal Services Board, it says.

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