News In Focus
23 July 2007
Criticism unjustified, says English Law Society
The Law Society of Scotland has come under fire from its counterpart in England & Wales for its views on the Clementi reforms currently passing through Parliament.
Interviewed in today's Herald, Des Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society of England & Wales, says the reforms will include safeguards to protect the profession from threats the Law Society of Scotland has expressed concerns about, such as criminal gangs owning law firms and using them for money laundering.
Mr Hudson, who joined the English solicitors' representative body from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland, said he thought the Law Society of Scotland's arguments were unpersuasive and "scare-mongering". He claimed the "fit to own" test would stop criminal elements owning law firms.
Following a split of its functions implemented early this year, the Law Society of England & Wales has an exclusively representative role. Regulation of the solicitors' profession south of the border is carried out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Under the Clementi reforms, in the shape of the Legal Services Bill, legal firms will be able to finance expansion through flotation on the stock market and admit other professionals such as accountants to ownership on an equal footing with lawyers. The Law Society of Scotland has argued that how professional regulation would be applied to such a business, and how standards of public protection would be maintained, has not been satisfactorily set out.
The Office of Fair Trading is due to respond by the beginning of August to the "super-complaint" lodged by the organisation Which? into the regulation of the legal profession in Scotland.