It provides services and support to practising and training solicitors, as well as serving as a sounding board for law reform.

Members of the Society are often consulted when important issues are being debated in Parliament or by the executive.

'London' was dropped from the title in 1825 to reflect the fact that the Law Institution had national aspirations.

By 1907, the Society possessed a statutory disciplinary committee and was empowered to investigate solicitors' accounts and to issue annual practising certificates.

Following the recommendations of the Clementi Review The Law Society split its representative and regulatory functions.

Complaints from the public are handled by the Legal Ombudsman which is a single portal for complaints by the public made against all providers of legal services including the Bar, licensed conveyancers etc., but excluding unqualified will-writers.

The Law Society remains the approved regulator, although following the Legal Services Act 2007 a new body, the Legal Services Board (currently chaired by Dr Helen Phillips[6]) oversees all the approved regulators including the Bar Council, which has also divested its regulatory functions into the Bar Standards Board.

The Law Society of England and Wales is a Designated Professional Body under the Financial Services & Markets Act 2000.