Edmonds to step down as chair of LSB

David Edmonds, chair of the Legal Services Board, is stepping down and due to be replaced by 1 May 2014.

The MoJ said in its job description that they are looking for a new chair "passionate about creating an environment in which regulation is as light touch as possible". The chair must, under the Legal Services Act, be a lay person.

Both the Bar Council and the Law Society have criticised the LSB for excessive interference and duplication of their efforts, and the Bar Council has called for its abolition.

Earlier this week, the LSB launched a consultation on a rule change which would require both the SRA and BSB to be chaired by non-lawyers, when Charles Plant and Baroness Ruth Deech come to the end of their terms next year.

David Edmonds was appointed inaugural chair of the LSB on 1 May 2008 for a term of three years, and then reappointed for a further term of three years, expiring on 30 April 2014.

In an interview with Solicitors Journal last month, Edmonds repeated his call for a single regulator for the legal profession, setting out his vision for a new legal services authority which would be a "totally different regulator, constructed from first principles".

Later he said: "If I have a single regret about my past five years of tenure, it is that I didn't say to the BSB and the SRA to throw away what they had and start again."

The MoJ said in its job description that the new chair should be "passionate about creating an environment in which regulation is as light touch as possible in order to secure quality and propriety for consumers and who has the knowledge, experience and skills to drive market-based reforms in the legal services sector.

"You should be innovative, persuasive, have the ability to challenge existing assumptions and have the commitment and skills to turn those ideas into successful change."

Edmonds holds a handful of other board positions, including chair of NHS Shared Business Services and non-executive director of William Hill plc.