News Article - 24 May 2012
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The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is warning finance professionals that the legal services bill may prevent them from operating fully in multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs) for a number of years.

According to the ICAEW, advisors will have to wait until 2011 to operate the practices because of how the legal services bill is worded.

Caron Bradshaw, business law manager at the institute, told Accountancy Age that the bill did not make provisions for companies which wanted to create a practice where accountants and lawyers could be partners.

In addition, she voiced her concern that the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) decided not to let accountants work in MDPs until 2011.

"The DCA should have attempted some type of risk scale, they've not considered the professional standing [of an MDP]," she said.

Late last year, the government published the legal services bill in a bid to overhaul the country's legal services.

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