A year of progress

ALTHOUGH THE YEAR HAS GIVEN RISE TO A NEED TO DEFEND THE LEGAL PROFESSION AGAINST MEDIA ATTACKS THERE HAVE ALSO BEEN ADVANCES IN PROMOTING THE WORK OF SOLICITORS, SAYS JANET PARASKEVA

As the Law Society approaches its annual general meeting and the end of the council year it is a good time to look back over what has been an extremely busy year and one with a great deal of activity.

It has been a year in which the pro bono work of solicitors became something to celebrate and the press coverage of National Pro Bono Week, regionally and nationally, boosted the reputation of the lawyers and their contribution to the community.

It has also been a year in which the Society drew the attention of government and the public to the role lawyers play in protecting human rights in this country and abroad, including those of detainees in the Guantanamo Bay camps in Cuba.

However, it has also been necessary to defend the profession against attacks in the media, correcting inaccurate information about the costs of defence lawyers and challenging the negative portrayal of client-solicitor relationships unhelpfully drawn from the minority of cases that go wrong.

And some cases do go wrong.

In a year in which legal activity has undoubtedly increased there has been a consequential increase in the number of complaints.

And we have not made the progress we had hoped for in relation to our consumer redress activities.

However, we have increased our investment in this area of work and increased staff resources are now focused on casework.

We also appointed our first independent commissioner to oversee our consumer redress scheme and to help us bring about a new focus on swift and appropriate remedies for solicitors' clients when things do go wrong.

It has been a year of debate on the future of the legal profession, particularly significant in light of the report from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) calling for an end to restrictive practices, and in advance of a key government consultation document on deregulation.

The increased importance of overseas business to the legal profession has also been given new prominence on the Society's agenda, especially given the accelerating pace of the GATS negotiations on international trade in legal services.

The Society's international unit's main task is the removal of obstacles in the way of UK firms practising in international markets; the important markets offered by Korea and Japan have been the major focus this year.

Providing evidence for changes in the profession that could be detrimental to access to justice is an example of another activity which could have far-reaching effects.

Early findings from research on recruitment and retention problems experienced by legal aid practices indicate the potential for a serious loss of suppliers with respondents saying that publicly funded work is no longer economically viable.

We will use these findings as part of a campaign to convince the government of the need to address the pay rates of practitioners in the interests of securing access to justice.

Finally, a comment on the Society's forward programme, including our important work on law reform.

We are lobbying on a number of major government bills, drafting briefings and amendments, tabling parliamentary questions and arranging meetings with MPs and peers.

Our focus is on the Employment Bill, the Proceeds of Crime Bill, the Enterprise Bill, the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill, the Finance Bill and the Adoption Bill.

A special briefing session has also been arranged on the need for a Mental Incapacity Bill in the next Queen's speech.

Where possible we work with others; this year we jointly hosted events with the Bar Council and Stonewall on cohabitation, worked with Justice and Liberty on criminal justice issues and human rights and with the Law Commission on anti-social behaviour orders and the reform of housing law.

In a year that will end with some criticism from the Legal Services Ombudsman, let us not forget the praise from the OFT for our achievements in promoting competition in the legal services market and improving choice for consumers.

We also had the endorsement of the President of the Family Courts Division, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, for our family law protocol and the commendation of ministers for our recently published guide to the Youth Court produced with the help of the Youth Justice Board.

It's been quite a year.

Janet Paraskeva is chief executive of the Law Society