Our webinar Progress, Priorities and the Road Ahead, took place on 21 July 2026. Hosted by CRL’s chair Jonathan Rees and CEO John Barwick, the session reviewed:
- the Mazur judgment and how this is shaping our future direction. The first half of 2026 saw an unprecedented increase in litigation practice rights applications, with more than 1,200 practice rights authorisations achieved through the professionalism and resilience of applicants and CRL’s agile operational response. Alongside this work, CRL continued its core regulatory activities, provided ongoing guidance, engaged with stakeholders and regulators and progressed key strategic initiatives.
- progress against our strategic priorities, including our enforcement processes, developing guidance on the use of AI in legal practice, launching a public beta version of the Regulatory Information Service, and strengthening our relationship with CILEX. Our recent Stakeholder Perceptions Survey highlighted the need for CRL to rebuild trust, communicate its independent role more clearly, and improve engagement with the profession.
- the Mazur Lessons Learned exercise, which the Board commissioned. The review found that strong leadership, committed staff and agile decision-making enabled the organisation to manage exceptional operational pressures. However, it also identified weaknesses in communications, reliance on manual processes, dependency on key individuals and limited crisis preparedness. The review recommended investment in systems, stronger stakeholder engagement, improved resilience, better applicant experiences and more formal crisis governance.
- our 2027 priorities, which have been shaped by feedback: to rebuild trust and confidence, improve responsiveness and operational performance and deepen engagement with the regulated community. To support these ambitions, we will shortly be consulting on a proposed increase to the 2027 Practising Certificate Fee.
Find out more
- CRL Webinar 21 July 2026 – webinar slides
- Mazur Lessons Learned Report – published 22 July 2026
