Update from The Law Society 17 July 2016

Below is a report from the Chief Executive of The Law Society:

It has been a significant week for the Law Society and the political landscape. We have said goodbye and thank you to Jonathan Smithers as 171st Law Society president and said hello to Robert Bourns as the 172nd.We also saw the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister, Liz Truss as Lord Chancellor and an almost entirely new cabinet. We will be working hard to build effective relationships with the new administration as we continue to influence on behalf of the profession and the public interest.

We have also made some significant steps toward the future success of the organisation this week with the decision to invest in transforming our IT and further discussion of our governance review.

This week I would like to update you on:

• Inauguration of our 172nd president

• Legal Professional Privilege

• CON29DW

• Clinical Negligence claims

• Speaking engagements and events

• Parliamentary

• Media coverage

• International highlights

• Communities

• Law Society training

Inauguration of our 172nd president

Partner of the national law firm TLT Solicitors, Robert Bourns, took office as the 172nd president of the Law Society of England and Wales on Thursday (14 July). You can read his inaugural address here. The president hosted a reception at which he gave a speech outlining his key priorities for the year before being interviewed by Afua Hirsch, social affairs and education editor at Sky News and taking questions from the audience. There were more than 70 guest including Lord Hunt, Andrea Coomber, Director at Justice and many members of the profession as well as key external stakeholders.

Consultation responses

SRA Handbook Consultation The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) consultation Looking to the Future has a deadline for response by 21 September. Over the summer, we will be conducting a wide-ranging dialogue with solicitors through events, briefings and discussions with local law societies, as it seeks to gather opinions and evidence about the possible impact of these proposals. The SRA’s proposals for changes to their handbook for solicitor and firm regulation, if accepted, will leave clients with less protection and could result in a two-tier solicitor profession. See here for details.

Today we have published a briefing note on the consultation and the president is writing to local law societies with a copy. We will be submitting a full and evidence-based response to the consultation and urge the profession to consider the implications of the proposed changes and get in touch. Solicitors wanting to give feedback can email regulation@lawsociety.org.uk

Corporate Insolvency Framework response

In May 2016 the Insolvency Service and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills jointly published a consultation entitled ‘A Review of the Corporate Insolvency Framework. You can read our response here.

Land Registry consultation response

We have responded (see here) to the Land Registry’s consultation on the Local Land Charges Rules 2017.

HMRC consultation

We have responded to HMRC’s consultation on strengthening disclosure regimes for indirect taxes and inheritance tax.

Legal Professional Privilege

The House of Lords should act to safeguard the ability of clients to communicate with their lawyers confidentially when they debate the Investigatory Powers Bill on Monday, we said as we urged peers to protect legal professional privilege.

CON29DW

Our CON29DW form has been updated, working in consultation with the Drainage and Water Searches Network (DWSN). The updated form has been implemented by water companies over the past couple of months with the aim of all companies using the updated forms by 4 July 2016. This will coincide with the implementation of the updated CON29 and CON29O forms.

Clinical Negligence claims

Last summer, the government announced that there would be a formal consultation by the Department of Health on proposals to introduce fixed recoverable costs for claimant solicitors for some clinical negligence claims.

In August 2015, the department launched a pre-consultation exercise in which it proposed a fixed-fees regime for clinical negligence cases up to the value of £250,000. I described the proposal as ‘truly shocking’ as it would include claims where people had been very seriously harmed and would discriminate against those on lower incomes.

In March, the care quality minister, Ben Gummer, (who has now left health for the cabinet office) advised that because of the delay to the consultation the implementation date of October 2016 was not achievable. We await the consultation and in the meantime we continue to work closely with a range of other stakeholders in anticipation of its publication.

Speaking engagements and events

The president, vice president, deputy vice president and deputy vice president elect gave speeches at our AGM on Thursday 14 July, followed by the handover of office. The former President gave his valedictory speech.

Sir Terence Etherton was the guest speaker at the summer council dinner on Wednesday (13 July) at which Jonathan Smithers gave the key note speech. The dinner was attended by council members and senior external stakeholders.

Parliamentary

Last Friday (8 July) there was a debate on court fees during which the Law Society was mentioned by the Shadow Justice Secretary a number of times as well as other MPs.

Amendments to Clause 27 of the Investigatory Powers Bill, which were tabled by Lord Pannick on behalf of the Law Society, were discussed on Wednesday (13 July) in the House of Lords. Our position was widely supported by peers who spoke in the debate, including Lord Lester, Baroness Hamwee, Baroness Hayter, Lord Carlile, and Lord Mackay. We briefed peers ahead of the debate and met those who spoke in the debate.

Media coverage

The Gazette reports on Law Society concerns that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) ‘radical’ handbook reforms will have serious implications for client protection, legal professional privilege, professional supervision, competition and the standing of the solicitor profession.

A number of publications highlighted calls from the Law Society for changes to the Investigatory Powers Bill, proposed in amendments to be debated in the House of Lords this week.

The Gazette, Litigation Futures and Legal Futures write that the Law Society has joined forces with claimant groups to present a united front against government proposals for personal injury reforms, forming an alliance with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and Motor Accident Solicitors Society to oppose the planned changes.

International highlights

On Monday (11 July) we hosted an event with the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law for professionals and specialists on child justice. The event was well attended and will lead to further collaboration with the Bingham Centre and War Child on this area of work.

On Wednesday (13 July), we met with Sir Desmond Swayne MP, a minister at the Department for International Development (DfID), to discuss strategic collaboration between our two organisations. We suggested an initial investment from DFID to support the delivery of these international programmes.

On Thursday (14 July), we met with Tazeen Hasan (Senior Private Sector Development Specialist, Women, Business and the Law) to discuss potential collaboration, especially on the forthcoming Gender and Development Programme.

Communities

Our CRED (Corporate Responsibility, Equality and Diversity) team hosted the ENEI (Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion) awards at Chancery Lane on 7th July. Robert Bourns spoke, along with David Isaac the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The event was attended by a number of Law firms along with private sector, public and third sector firms. The CRED team also held an event on contextualised recruitment this week.

51 delegates attended a joint event hosted by the Small Firms Division and Family Section at Chancery Lane on Thursday, entitled ‘Setting up shop – how to start up a small law firm”. The event featured presentations from the SRA, first-hand experience from practitioners who have set up their own small family law practices, advice from consultants specialising in risk and compliance and advising and supporting solicitors looking to set up their own firm.

Library Services Manager Michael Maher attended this week’s Liverpool Law Society General Council meeting to make a presentation about the library services that we offer to members. He has also been asked to write an article about the library services for Liverpool’s local newsletter.

Best

Catherine Dixon

Chief Executive