Update 1 April 2026
On 30 April, the Court of Appeal released its judgement on the appeal brought by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives in relation to the High Court case of Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP.
The judgement clarifies that there is no distinction between (i) an unauthorised person providing support to an authorised person who conducts litigation, and (ii) an unauthorised person conducting litigation under the supervision of an authorised person.
It remains the case that the level of supervision required by the authorised person will depend on the circumstances arising in each instance, and the authorised person remains responsible for the conduct of the litigation and for ensuring that any supervision arrangements are appropriate.
The judgement does not provide an exhaustive list of acts or tasks that would fall within the definition of the 'conduct of litigation', but it considers a list of activities which would not be considered to fall within the definition, including giving legal advice in connection with court proceedings, conducting correspondence with the opposing party on behalf of clients and instructing and liasing with Counsel and experts. See paragraph 193 for the full list.
If you conduct litigation in the course of your practice, we advise that you read the full judgement linked above and ensure the adequacy of any supervision arrangements in place as appropriate.
IPReg statement October 2025 (superceded, see above)
The recent (May 2025) case of Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP has confirmed the position set out in the Legal Services Act 2007 that only authorised persons may carry on the conduct of litigation.
Although a person may be regulated by virtue of working within a regulated practice, unless also authorised individually they may not conduct litigation and may only support an authorised person to do so.
What constitutes conduct and support will be fact-specific but the authorised person (regulated attorney) must assume responsiblity and exercise their professional judgement over key decisions and formal steps. They may be supported in doing so by an appropriately supervised non-authorised person who may take on the preparatory and administrative tasks involved in the process.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has prepared a consolidated note to assist authorised persons in interpreting the law which you may find useful.
See here for more information about the Litigation and Rights of Audience etc Rules.