Summary of Report of the Chair of the Membership Board December 2009

Support for members facing regulatory action

• A proposal for research to help the Society ascertain what support it could provide members faced with a regulatory problem was signed off. The main aims of the research will be to identify gaps in existing support and insurance provision in relation to solicitors’ relationships with regulators.

• To explore solicitors’ views on the appropriateness of the Law Society providing such a service.

• Help determine the level at which cover should be offered. A procurement exercise for the research will be undertaken shortly with field work beginning in 2010.

Gazette trainee circulation
The Chair reported that in October it was decided that the Gazette should not be circulated in hard copy to trainees which would save £120,000 annually. The Board has asked that online JLD specific editorial content and facilities be produced specifically targeted at trainees subject to commercial considerations. This will be discussed between the Commercial team and the JLD.

Fellowship of the Law Society
Recommendation 58 of the Hunt Review that the Society should establish a badge for professional excellence in a form of a Fellowship of the Law Society was constitutionally feasible was rejected by members of the Board as they believed that a fellowship scheme would create an unwarranted and unnecessary hierarchy within the profession and would be divisive. The Board would prefer to explore the concept of extended membership to respond to new factors such as the impact of ABS.

Transfer of accreditation panels
The Society’s new Accreditation team had been developing plans for the 11 voluntary schemes which were transferred from the SRA in July. A business plan for phases 2 and 3 of the accreditation project had been approved.

Relationship with local law societies
A Memorandum of Understanding should be ready of January 2010 which will form the basis of the relationship between the Law Society and local law societies and will be able to be modified to meet local requirements. This will be on the agenda of the Presidents and Secretaries conference on 14-15 May 2010.

A Council member queried the fellowship scheme as being seen as divisive. The Chair responded that he was agnostic personally. The Lord Hunt recommendation had meant that this needed to be considered, but the Board had emphatically rejected the proposals. It was felt there were enough ways of recognising excellence and that there were concerns that this would devalue the badge of solicitor.

It was noted that the Membership Board were considering reviewing the relationships between the Law Society and Groups and Sections and Council members wanted more information, however the paper is currently being prepared and will be available to those who wish to have sight of the review in the new year.

Concerns were raised about the lists of the availability of names and addresses of members and it was asked if the Memorandum of Understanding would deal with this. To date, despite promises that these would be available to local law societies, the Council member’s local law society had contradictory answers from the Law Society. The Chief Executive said that Council may recall that he had announced that the Membership Board had authorised one free list rental per year and arrangements on discounted pricing for subsequent usage in the year. This could be included in the Memorandum of Understanding but lists should be available on local law societies now.