Fresh start as Society ushers in lay membersThe Law Society Council is set to open its doors to lay members and close the door on national elections as part of the most comprehensive reform package in the Society's recent history.

At a special meeting held in Grantham last week, the council voted overwhelmingly to increase the number of seats on the governing body up to a maximum of 120 and to allow up to 5% of those places to be filled by non-solicitors.

There will also be greater representation of specialist practice areas and groups.

In addition, the council backed measures which would see an end to controversial national elections for the top three offices at the Society and save an estimated 100,000 a year.

It approved an electoral college which would see the deputy vice-president elected by the council and then move up automatically.

The council also approved plans to restructure the corporate governance of the Law Society by creating a main board and five subsidiary boards.

However, it deferred a decision on a recommendation to appoint a lay commissioner as part of a reformed complaints redress scheme.

Council members agreed that they would consider these issues again once more detailed proposals had been worked up on the operation of the scheme and the role of the lay commissioner.

The reform proposals will now be put to a special general meeting on 28 February. The council vote followed the results of a profession-wide consultation which showed that four-fifths of respondents supported the main thrust of the proposals (see [2001] Gazette, 18 January, 4).

However, the council members bucked the consultation's narrow opposition to lay membership of the governing body.The proposed main board will be supported by five subsidiary boards, covering compliance, standards, representation, law reform, and finance and resources.

The compliance and standards boards, which between them will oversee the regulatory function, will have 50% lay membership.

and 25% lay membership respectively.

The detailed terms of reference of the boards are to be agreed by the council at its meeting in March.Welcoming the council vote, Law Society President Michael Napier said: 'The Society will now have consumer involvement at every level of governance.

The Society's goal...

is to strive to guarantee high-quality legal services by solicitors to the public, vigorously promote solicitors' interests and be a leading voice on best practice of law and law reform.

Consumer involvement in key aspects of our work is a vital element in achieving it.'Jonathan Ames