Even as the country has grown more diverse, more complex, less tolerant of privilege and more accustomed to transparency from its institutions, the legal sector has somehow managed to trundle on, ever-resistant to external attempts to change how it works. For all its failings, the argument goes, the legal system delivers a strong, independent and effective service to those who need it. Fundamentally, the system is designed and maintained by lawyers for lawyers, not for those who use it. The Legal Services Regulatory Authority, a legacy of one of the few senior politicians to take on these problems, Alan Shatter, is now up and running. She should now make implementation of its plan, and a wider overhaul of the legal sector, a priority for her term in office.

Source: The Irish Times December 03, 2020 19:00 UTC