Legal News Wales recently hosted a roundtable with the Legal Services Board (LSB) in Swansea, bringing together law firms, regulators, educators and consumer representatives to discuss the pressures, opportunities and practical realities shaping legal services in Wales.
The Legal Services Board oversees the regulation of legal services in England and Wales.
The roundtable – hosted under Chatham House Rules, with participants’ permission to use unattributed quotes – marked one of the first stakeholder meetings attended by Monisha Shah since becoming Chair of the Legal Services Board on 1 April. Attendees included lawyers and legal operations representative from law firms in Swansea, local universities and free legal advice centres, CILEx and the SRA.
The University of Wales Trinity St David kindly hosted the roundtable in April 2026.
Opening the discussion, the LSB emphasised its commitment to listening to the profession and understanding the distinctive legal, regulatory and consumer landscape in Wales. Monisha was particularly keen to hear from the legal profession to understand the impact of regulation on the delivery and accessibility of legal services. The Consumer Panel were there to represent the views of the consumer.
The conversation explored a wide range of issues, from ethics and the regulatory ‘burden’ to artificial intelligence, consumer understanding, qualification routes, legal technology costs, succession planning and access to justice.
A strong theme throughout the session was the need for regulation to remain proportionate, practical and enabling – protecting consumers while also recognising the pressures faced by firms operating in increasingly complex markets.
“We need regulation that protects consumers, but also enables growth and innovation.”
Ethics, guidance & regulatory consistency
The discussion began with ethics and the LSB’s recent work to ensure legal professionals uphold their professional ethical duties.
Participants acknowledged the importance of maintaining ethical standards throughout a lawyer’s career but raised concerns about how new expectations might translate into additional regulatory burden for firms.
The roundtable heard that ethics training must be meaningful and practical, not simply another compliance exercise. There was support for collaboration across the sector to share case studies, examples and good practice – particularly where ethical decision-making is more nuanced in day-to-day practice.
The LSB agreed on the need for collaboration and outlined plans to convene a Professional Ethics Network to achieve the cultural step-change required to improve standards among lawyers.
The LSB explained that its approach is outcomes-focused rather than prescriptive. This means that while it makes clear the outcomes it wants to see, the regulators can decide how best to achieve that within their regulated communities of solicitors, barristers, chartered legal executives and other authorised legal professionals. The LSB would then assess how well the regulators had met the outcomes.
The conversation also touched on recent regulatory uncertainty arising from the Mazur judgment, with firms calling for clearer, joined-up guidance from regulators and representative bodies. Participants noted that inconsistent or unclear messaging can create unnecessary risk, cost and confusion for firms and clients alike. The Legal Services Board said that it welcomed the clarity provided by the Court of Appeal. It noted participants’ concerns about the need for clear messages and said it would continue to hold the regulators to account to ensure there is a clear and consistent approach across the sector.
AI, client expectations & legal tech pressures
Artificial intelligence dominated much of the discussion, particularly its impact on conveyancing, employment litigation and high-volume areas of legal work.
Firms described AI as both an opportunity and a source of significant concern. Used well, technology is already helping some practices streamline onboarding, improve efficiency and increase capacity. In some cases, firms said this was helping reduce costs for consumers.
However, participants also warned that AI is changing client behaviour. Firms reported clients using tools such as ChatGPT to summarise advice, generate questions, challenge legal opinions and produce lengthy correspondence. This is creating additional work for lawyers, particularly where AI-generated content is inaccurate, misleading or divorced from the legal reality.
“Clients are no longer just speaking to lawyers – increasingly, lawyers are speaking to ChatGPT.”
The roundtable also heard concerns about litigants in person using AI to pursue or prolong claims, increasing costs for represented parties and creating new challenges for access to justice.
For firms, the issue is not whether AI should be used, but how it can be adopted safely, ethically and affordably. Participants highlighted the need for clearer guidance on due diligence, data protection, cyber security, supplier assurance and the risks of using tools trained primarily on English law, particularly where Welsh law diverges.
“We’re not IT experts – yet firms are increasingly expected to make highly technical decisions around AI, cyber risk and data governance.”
The LSB said participants’ insights on technology and innovation would inform its ongoing work in this area. The oversight regulator sees both opportunities and risks in the use of technology to provide and access legal services. In 2024, the oversight regulator urged regulators to be proactive in fostering an environment that encourages lawyers and law firms to innovate to better connect people with legal services.
The Legal Services Board wants to ensure that the sector does not fall behind as new technologies are developing rapidly. It notes that fields such as finance and medicine tend to be faster and keener to embrace innovation. The LSB also wanted to ensure that consumers who don’t have access to technology were not left behind and unable to access justice.
The cost of innovation
While technology offers clear benefits, firms warned that the cost of legal tech is becoming a serious pressure.
Participants described rising licence fees, expensive system migrations and dependency on a relatively small pool of trusted suppliers. Once a firm has invested heavily in a platform, it can be difficult to change provider, leaving firms exposed to significant price increases.
The roundtable heard that while technology is often presented as a route to efficiency, the cost is frequently passed on to consumers. There was concern that smaller firms may struggle to keep pace, potentially widening the gap between larger firms with dedicated compliance, IT and cyber teams, and smaller practices without the same internal resource.
“There’s a real risk of a two-tier legal sector emerging between firms that can afford to invest in technology and those that cannot.”
Participants also reflected on the wider commercial pressures facing firms, including rising operational costs, increasingly demanding compliance obligations and changing client expectations.
“The profession is spending more time on compliance than legal work.”
The LSB said it would raise these concerns with the regulators as part of its work to understand the impact of regulation on service delivery costs.
Future lawyers, qualification routes & diversity
The future of the profession was another key theme, with discussion focusing on the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), apprenticeships, CILEX, the Legal Practise Course (LPC ) and routes into practice.
Participants raised concerns that the SQE is not always reflective of legal practice, particularly where candidates attempt assessments without sufficient work-based experience. The roundtable heard that the end of the LPC has created uncertainty for students, firms and educators, while the cost of qualification remains a major barrier.
At the same time, apprenticeship routes were seen as a positive development, particularly for widening access and attracting talent from more diverse backgrounds. Firms highlighted the value of learning on the job and the role of funded routes in opening up the profession.
However, participants warned that diversity ambitions could be undermined if qualification routes become too costly, confusing or disconnected from practice.
“The jobs trainees think they’re going into today may not exist in the same format in five years’ time.”
The discussion also touched on succession planning and changing attitudes towards partnership and ownership within law firms.
Participants noted that younger lawyers are increasingly cautious about taking on the financial and regulatory responsibilities associated with ownership, particularly in smaller high street practices.
“You can only start your actual day job after five o’clock.”
The LSB continues to monitor the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regarding the implementation and operation of the SQE and agreed to feed relevant insights back to the SRA and consider them as part of its regulatory oversight.
Consumer understanding & access to justice
The roundtable also explored how consumers understand legal services and whether they know where to turn when they have a legal problem.
Participants discussed the complexity of the current regulatory landscape and the difficulty many consumers face in distinguishing between solicitors, licensed conveyancers, CILEX practitioners, prop-tech providers and other legal service providers.
There was agreement that consumers should be able to make informed choices – not necessarily choosing one type of provider over another, but understanding what they are buying, who regulates the provider, what protections apply, and where to complain if something goes wrong.
“Consumers should understand what they are buying – and make informed decisions about the services they choose.”
Legal Choices was discussed as a public-facing resource. It is a website run by legal services regulators in England and Wales that provides free, independent, and factual information to help the public navigate legal issues. It helps users understand legal problems, find regulated lawyers, manage legal fees, and make informed choices. Participants suggested more could be done to improve its visibility, usability and consumer relevance.
The LSB said that it would feed this back to the regulators and explore whether the website needs to be promoted differently to help it fulfil the aim of widening access to legal services.
The discussion also returned repeatedly to access to justice in Wales, particularly in smaller communities and areas where local high street provision is under pressure. Rising costs, succession challenges, recruitment pressures and consolidation were all identified as factors affecting the sustainability of legal services outside major urban centres.
“High street legal services remain critical to communities across Wales but the pressures on smaller firms are intensifying.”
Collaboration as a Welsh strength
Despite the challenges, the roundtable also highlighted Wales’ collaborative legal culture.
Participants pointed to the willingness of firms, educators, regulators and representative bodies to share insight, pick up the phone and work together. This collaborative spirit was seen as one of Wales’ strengths – and something that could help the sector respond to change more effectively.
“Wales has a collaborative legal culture. People still pick up the phone and help each other here.”
The LSB closed the session by reflecting on the themes raised, including the need for proportionate regulation, better consumer information, improved collaboration around technology, and clearer routes to support innovation while protecting the public interest.
“The future of legal services in Wales will depend on balancing innovation, trust, affordability and access.”
For Legal News Wales and the oversight regulator, the roundtable provided a timely and honest insight into the realities facing firms across Wales: a profession navigating regulatory complexity, technological disruption and workforce change, while continuing to serve clients and communities in a distinctive Welsh legal landscape.
With thanks to the Legal Services Board and the venue host, the University of Wales Trinity St David and all the attendees for their support of this event.
