CILEx Regulation CEO John Barwick looks back on the regulator’s achievements in 2025 and sets out its objectives and key priorities for the year
CILEx Regulation’s (CRL) mission is to provide targeted and responsive independent regulation of CILEX members, which in turn promotes high education standards and consumer confidence.
In December last year, we published our corporate plan for 2026, setting out an ambitious programme of work for delivering the second year of our 2025-2027 corporate strategy, building on the achievements of 2025. The aim of the plan is to further strengthen the regulation of Chartered Legal Executives, improve information for consumers and be a thought leader on the future of legal regulation in England and Wales.
As we progress through 2026, we remain focused on delivering a high standard of specialist regulation for CILEX members that is risk-based, proportionate and in the public and consumer interest.
Our six priority areas
Responding to Mazur
We understand the considerable distress and uncertainty caused by the original judgment in the case of Mazur v Charles Speechlys LLP 2025. Our priority since September 2025 has been to assist Chartered Legal Executives to gain litigation practice rights. In the last edition of CILEX Journal, we set out the practical solutions CRL put in place to address the challenges posed by Mazur. Since then, we have further updated the information available to support applicants, including application guidance, case study materials and top tips.
Furthermore, informed by feedback from CILEX members via the CILEX Support Group, we made a number of amendments to the practice rights application process. These include some time-limited amendments to the portfolio route practice rights application process, including an extension to the time period in which we will accept relevant litigation experience from two to five years.
CRL welcomes the recent Court of Appeal judgment and the clarity and reassurance it brings for those affected by Mazur. The judgment concludes that an authorised person may lawfully conduct litigation if they do so under the supervision of an authorised individual. As such, the court found that it is lawful for an unauthorised person to act for and on behalf of an authorised individual so as to conduct litigation under their supervision, provided the authorised individual puts in place appropriate arrangements for the supervision of and delegation to the unauthorised person.
In our role as regulator, our priority continues to be to support Chartered Legal Executives to be able to deliver high-quality legal services with confidence. Since CRL obtained authorisation from the Legal Services Board (LSB) to offer standalone litigation practice rights in early November 2025, over 850 Chartered Legal Executives have successfully obtained litigation practice rights. These rights enable Chartered Legal Executives to litigate without the need for supervision. We are working with other regulators and stakeholders to update guidance to reflect the full implications of the judgment.
Enforcement improvements
Work is already underway to make improvements to our enforcement team processes, to improve efficiency and reduce timescales for handling prior conduct and misconduct cases. This includes reviewing the existing Enforcement Rules to ensure they reflect best practice.
Improving user experience
We are focused on refining and improving the way in which we deliver regulatory services in the public and professional interest and will look to implement improvements to the delivery of our core authorisation, supervision and enforcement regulatory activities.
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
Following the publication of our refreshed EDI strategy for 2026-2028 at the end of last year, EDI remains one of our central objectives. Our priorities for 2026 are to improve legal sector access, help professionals to realise their potential, serve all legal services consumers and ensure CRL continues to be an inclusive organisation.
Future regulatory landscape
We will continue to engage constructively with CILEX on the future shape of regulation, including the broader debate on the effectiveness of the Legal Services Act 2007. We welcome the recent announcement by justice minister Sarah Sackman KC MP of the independent review of the LSB and will be responding to the call for evidence.
Stakeholder engagement
We will also continue our programme of outreach, building on the success of our two webinars in November 2025, which reached over 1,300 individuals. We are developing a targeted action plan, informed by feedback from our recent Stakeholder Perception Survey.
Despite the recent impact of Mazur, we made significant progress against our key objectives in 2025, including significant advances in our access to justice and consumer empowerment goals. This included improving the transparency of information firms are required to provide to consumers and a review of our complaints-handling guidelines. We also furthered our digital exclusion work through an extensive research project in collaboration with other legal regulators. The research effectively highlighted the real-life impact of digital exclusion on legal services consumers.
Whilst responding to the impacts of Mazur on the CILEX regulated community will remain a priority for the foreseeable future, we also remain focused on building upon last year’s achievements in order to continue to improve our regulatory approach and ultimately, consumer confidence in CRL regulated professionals.
To find out more read CRL’s corporate strategy 2025-2027
