Challenging year for solicitors
9 Mar 07
Society's President calls for commitment to ensure quality goes with badge of solicitor
An "exceedingly full, challenging and exciting year" was how the Law Society of Scotland's President Ruthven Gemmell chose to sum up 2006 at the Society's annual general meeting held this morning.
Mr Gemmell said the Society had dealt with major issues facing the profession last year including regulation, an education and training consultation, reviews of diversity and equality and the impact of the English Legal Services Bill proposals on Scottish solicitors.
He said: “The badge of solicitor is one which is held, and continues to be held, in high esteem both by the profession itself, and by others around the globe. It unites the profession, however diverse, and is one we should be justifiably proud of. It will require the commitment of the whole profession to ensure that this continues.”
The Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill, which became an Act in January, had generated a huge amount of work for the Society that, along with the profession’s contribution, was critical in achieving the improvements to the proposed legislation, added Mr Gemmell.
Caroline Flanagan, a member of the Society’s Council and a family lawyer, responded to one of two motions on legal aid before the AGM, from the Family Law Association.
She said: “There is already anecdotal evidence of advice deserts appearing in parts of Scotland with solicitors stopping civil legal aid work. We need the profession to provide hard evidence so we can present a strong case to the Scottish Executive. We need to be able to show where and why solicitors are not being paid sufficiently and the effect that this is having on the public’s access to legal advice.”
The motions were accepted and one practice rule was approved by the AGM.
The practice rule was the Solicitors (Scotland) Accounts, Accounts Certificate, Professional Practice and Guarantee Fund (Amendment) Rules 2007. This amendment clarifies existing accounting rules which allow the Society to charge firms for re-inspections of their accounts.
The meeting also heard reports from Liz Campbell, Director of Education and Training, on the Society’s extensive consultation on the training of solicitors, and from Philip Yelland, Head of Regulation, on the implementation of the Legal Aid and Legal Profession (Scotland) Act.