The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is aiming to attract more secondees from law firms to assist in its dismantling following last month's announcement that the UK's system of financial regulation is to be overhauled.

The secondees will assist the FSA's general counsel division in dividing up the City watchdog to form the separate regulators – the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority (CPMA) – at the heart of the new regulatory framework.

It is standard practice for the 70-lawyer strong FSA general counsel division to operate with significant secondee support; around seven lawyers are usually on secondment. That figure will rise this autumn when steps to create an interim structure begin prior to the formal transfer of the FSA's power to the PRA and CPMA in mid-2012.