Towards the end of last month I had the honour of presenting Lord Collins of Mapesbury, the first solicitor to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court, with the Law Society’s lifetime achievement award, recognising his long and distinguished career.

Lord Collins is an excellent example of what solicitors can achieve and a strong riposte to those who question solicitors’ abilities to sit at the highest courts in the land. As a profession we have the right skills for the job: intellectual aptitude, and the ability to be fair and even-handed and to communicate well with lawyers and non-lawyers alike. The role of judges is increasingly about case management, in which solicitors are particularly well experienced. I know many solicitor colleagues who would be an asset to the bench (and a few who already are).

I had an opportunity to make this clear when I was asked to give evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee in response to their inquiry into the judicial appointments process last Wednesday. The committee was particularly interested in the evolving role of the judiciary and how that has affected its relationship with the executive and parliament.

Since the establishment of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) five years ago there has been some progress towards the creation of a more diverse and representative judiciary, drawn from the widest possible range of candidates appointed on merit. As of 1 April this year, 396 out of 444 district judges had qualified as solicitors. There are also excellent openings for solicitors in the many tribunals exercising jurisdiction in a wide range of matters - great and small. However, the number of solicitors holding higher judicial appointments remains very low indeed.

The Law Society is currently working with the JAC and the senior judiciary to ensure that more talented lawyers have the same opportunities for appointment on merit, regardless of their professional background. We also want to provide more practical support to members who are seeking judicial appointment.

For solicitors, a move to the judiciary offers a chance to make decisions that affect people’s lives and liberty, as well as providing new personal and professional challenges. For firms, there are reputational advantages from having a judge within a firm. A part-time judicial appointment can also play a useful role in an individual’s career planning, at a time when firms are looking ever more seriously at the lack of flexibility in our work culture, which is surely one of the main reasons why so many women (and some men) leave private practice prematurely.

Legal ethics and training

The importance of ethics as a topic appears to have risen to the top of many bar associations’ agendas. I am increasingly asked to talk about it on international trips and I am grateful that the subject is getting the attention that it deserves. There is no doubt that committing yourself to a career in law is committing yourself to a career that is based on protecting and promoting fundamental pillars of a functioning democracy and in a changing legal environment anything our profession can do to protect and enhance its reputation is particularly welcome.

Currently the regulatory bodies for solicitors, barristers and legal executives are undertaking a fundamental review of the legal education provided in England and Wales. The regulators have already made clear that the core aim of their review is to ‘ensure that the ethical standards and levels of competence of those delivering legal services in regulated law firms are sufficient to secure a high standard of service for clients, and to support the public interest and the rule of law’.

We believe that including ethics as a compulsory element of the Qualifying Law Degree would be an important first step towards achieving that objective. We define ethics as ‘the study of the relationship between morality and law, the values underpinning the legal system and the regulation of the legal services market, including the institutions, professional roles and ethics of the judiciary and legal professions’.

By including legal ethics as a compulsory part of the undergraduate law degree curriculum, we will be able to strengthen the foundations of our legal profession, equip solicitors with the foundation for acquiring the knowledge and skills that they will need to meet the requirements of the Legal Services Act and protect their reputation in a more competitive legal services market.

Making ethics a core part of a lawyer’s training from the outset will also help to embed in new joiners the unique culture and values of the legal profession. Law is not a science - despite a 19th century belief that ‘all the available materials are contained in printed books’.

We practise in a world where there are often social, moral or political consequences to the application or practice of the law and in which the moral certainties and standards of conduct of a previous generation of lawyers are no longer universally observed or respected.

I believe that those who are studying law would benefit from considering that context when they start their study. Students would be exposed to the professional norms and core values that will be expected of them as they progress throughout their career, something that is particularly important now that many trainees in larger firms, for practical reasons, are more distant from their principals than used to be the case.

I believe that if solicitors are to be capable of practising successfully in the new regulatory framework and more competitive market, they will need to possess a sense of professionalism and ethical behaviour beyond a mere ability to understand and comply with regulation. It is my hope that a more systematic legal ethics training regime will provide them with that.

By pursuing this course of action we think that we can best prepare our future members for the challenges they will face during their careers, retaining the confidence of the public and guarding our reputation against challenges from new players in the market, both within our jurisdiction, and, increasingly importantly, from across the globe.

John Wotton is president of the Law Society