As the draft Legal Services Bill threatens to undermine the independence of the legal profession, the Law Society vows to listen to and fight for the needs of all solicitors, says Fiona Woolf


As the first President of the Law Society to be responsible solely for representation of the profession, my focus is entirely towards promoting and protecting the interests of solicitors and supporting them in the services that we provide. I intend to lead a Law Society that listens to and understands the needs of all its members, and represents them all with vigour and tenacity. My role as President is largely one of communication, with the profession and for the profession.



At the outset of my presidency, I made a commitment to meet with the largest firms, to understand their specific needs and to learn how the Law Society can support their work. So far this month, I have written personally to all the managing partners of the top 100 and, to date, I have met with representatives of more than 17 firms. I will be visiting 17 more in the coming weeks.



My message is do not believe the myth that the Law Society cannot serve the entire profession because it’s too diverse. The City and the high street, large firms and small, employed solicitors and those in private practice share many of the same values and care passionately about upholding the brand of solicitor.



But my ambitions are wider than visits alone. We are working hard to increase the participation and involvement of firms and solicitors with the Law Society. And with Des Hudson taking up the reigns as chief executive this month, there is fresh impetus for the modernisation of the Society and more meaningful engagement with its members.



A regulatory affairs service has just opened for business that will look for ways to reduce the cost and burden of regulation. Regulation is the responsibility of the independent Regulation Board. It is for the representative body to influence regulation from the profession’s point of view. We want to target obvious regulatory issues that for solicitors are anachronistic, rules that do not add value or that impose disproportionate costs.


We are also working with the Trainee Solicitors Group and the Young Solicitors Group on a new venture to create a ‘first stage lawyers’ service that will go beyond pastoral care and networking for new solicitors. I am keen to create something that really works for new and training practitioners – who now account for about 50% of the profession – when taking their first steps in a challenging and exciting career.


For me, this is all about bringing solicitors and the Law Society much closer together, particularly at a time when there are so many issues on which the voice of the profession needs to be strong and collective.


Anyone who has seen the draft Legal Services Bill will know that it gives the proposed legal services board – the new over-arching regulatory body for the legal profession – a host of wide and unnecessary powers, including a power to set performance standards and targets and even a power to intervene in firms for a failure to perform. The White Paper and the Lord Chancellor promised a light-touch supervisor, not a strong primary regulator to second-guess the Law Society, the Bar and other front-line regulators. The Bill, as initially drafted, could mean being directly regulated by a government quango, which would undermine our independence. Government interference in the regulation of the legal profession could jeopardise the international reputation and success of UK law firms, even threatening their ability to operate in some jurisdictions, because we would no longer be regarded as a fully independent legal profession.

All this was driven by the government’s terms of reference for the Clementi review of legal services, which implied that if only the legal profession were regulated differently, it would be more competitive and innovative. I cannot agree with this notion.

The innovation and competitiveness of English and Welsh solicitors serve society well and are seriously undervalued. So, as I meet with firms, I want to hear examples of the creative delivery of legal services or innovative ways of working. My aim is to create a reservoir of examples that can be celebrated and used to champion the profession to government and the wider public.

Solicitors are responsible for a huge amount of competitiveness and innovation, of which we can be proud. The international market for UK legal services has almost quadrupled over the past ten years to more than £2 billion. It is fair to say that solicitors underpin the success of the services sector on which the British economy now relies.

I want to ensure that, when fully enacted, the Legal Services Bill establishes a framework of modern, enabling regulation that fosters the innovation and creativity of our law firms.

I will take every opportunity to promote and protect the interests of the profession. I will do all I can to equip solicitors with the opportunity to practise law profitably in an open, liberal, and well-regulated market.

I will be taking the issue of the Legal Services Bill to the Lord Chancellor next month, at our forthcoming conference, ‘Supporting Solicitors’. We are running a number of highly topical and useful sessions – there will be a chance to learn about the possibilities for alternative business structures and to hear more about Law Society modernisation, including the new services we intend to deliver.



Fiona Woolf is the Law Society President