Public Administration Perspective

Identifying the Factors and Components Affecting the Governance and Regulation of The Legal Services Market

Document Type : Research Article (with qualitative approaches)

Authors

1 Faculty of technical and engineering, Emam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran

2 industrial engineering department, Faculty of technical and engineering, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran.

3 private law department, Faculty of law, qom University, qom, Iran.

Abstract

Purpose: In the field of governance and regulation of the legal services market, countless challenges and opportunities have emerged that require detailed and comprehensive investigation. The increase of new technologies, the changing needs of society, and the increasing diversity of legal services have put pressure on the traditional systems of governance and regulation of the legal services market. The purpose of this research is to identify, analyze, and comprehensively evaluate the key factors and components affecting the governance and regulation of the legal services market in order to provide suggestions for improving and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of these systems in response to contemporary challenges and upcoming opportunities. This research tries to provide a deeper understanding of the complexities of governance and regulation in this market and provide practical solutions to improve access to effective, transparent, and affordable legal services.
Design/ methodology/ approach: The method used in the present research is the meta-synthesis. In order to use the meta-synthesis method, various methods have been proposed. To achieve the goals of this research, Sandelowski and Barroso's seven-step method was used. After the preliminary studies of a library of 364 researches and the selection of 37 selected researches during the years 2000 to 2023, the factors and components affecting the governance and regulation of the legal services market were identified. After several rounds of reading and reviewing the coded data to refine and improve the set of themes, 269 characteristics were identified. In the next step, the codes obtained from the previous step were analyzed and combined in the form of concepts, and the identified codes were categorized and combined based on the degree of conceptual similarity. At this stage, the extracted codes were classified in the form of 26 concepts, and the concepts identified at a higher level in the form of 7 key components and factors.
Research Findings: The results obtained from the research show that the factors of laws and regulations, professional standards, quality of regulatory institutions, training and professional development, competition and market, technology and innovation, and ethical principles are the factors influencing the governance and regulation of the legal services market, which in researches have been analyzed from different perspectives to evaluate and improve the governance systems of the legal services market and the legal profession. According to the identified factors of integration and regulation of comprehensive laws and regulations in the field of legal services and the activities of regulatory and union functions of regulatory institutions to prevent conflicts by policymakers and passers-by, as well as the standard for determining the best professional practices. All professional and legal aspects, continuous training of legal market actors such as lawyers and consulting services, preventing monopolies and ensuring healthy competition, paying attention to innovations in the field of legal technologies, and providing and maintaining ethical standards by regulatory bodies will promote the efficiency and improvement of the governance and regulatory system in the legal services market.
Limitations & Consequences: Access to information, diversity of legal and regulatory systems, continuous changes in laws and regulations, and limitations related to the generalization of results to other environments and markets, especially considering the wide legal and cultural diversity, are among the limitations of the research.
Practical Consequences: This research can have important and diverse practical consequences that help to improve the performance and efficiency of the legal services market. These consequences include the following:

Developing more effective policies: The research results can help governments and regulatory bodies develop policies and regulations that respond more effectively to the challenges in the legal services market.
Increasing transparency: Identifying the influencing factors can help increase transparency in how regulatory bodies and service providers operate, which strengthens public trust.
Improving access to legal services: This research can play a role in identifying barriers to access to legal services and providing solutions to resolve these barriers.
Strengthening collaboration among stakeholders: Research can identify areas of common ground between government, service providers, consumers, and other stakeholders and help strengthen collaboration and coordination among them.
Increasing stability and flexibility: Identifying effective factors and components can help the legal services market to be flexible and stable against rapid social, economic, and technological changes.

In sum, research in this area can lead to the improvement of the overall performance of the legal services market, so that the interests of all stakeholders are provided in the best possible way.
Innovation or value of the Article: This research is innovative by adopting a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary approach, and instead of focusing only on legal and economic aspects, it also includes social, cultural, technological, and ethical aspects, which helps to identify more complex factors that affect governance and regulation.
Paper Type: Original Paper
 

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Public Administration Perspective
Volume 15, Issue 3 - Serial Number 59
2024
Pages 104-129