Our life and times

From its humble beginnings as an information sheet, the Gazette has survived two world wars and evolved into the leading legal weekly with a circulation of more than 100,000.

Here, Neil Rose offers a history of the newspaper from its inception in 1903 to the present day

There is much in the 26 June 2003 issue of the Gazette that would horrify those who founded the journal a century ago.

In fact, there is little in here that would, in their day, have made it to print.

News, features, comments, letters, case reports - all major no-nos in 1903.

The intention at that time was for the Gazette to be nothing more than an information sheet for members of the Law Society.

A statement in the first issue in November 1903 warned members of the profession who contributed items that they must be 'strictly confined to matters of fact of general professional interest, and must not contain expressions of opinion or anything of a controversial character.

The [Law Society] council reserves to itself the right to reject or modify any such contributions'.

The Law Society's 1904 annual report clarified the position: 'The Gazette and Register [as it was then called] does not contain leading articles, comments, or expressions of opinion on legal questions, or correspondence, or reports of decided cases save such as have direct reference to the profession.

It is not intended that the Gazette shall be in competition with the existing law journals or periodicals.

It affords a convenient means of communication from the council to members of the Society.'

The Gazette's forerunner was first published in 1888, when the Society's registry department produced the Register of Properties and Securities, which contained details of property sales and mortgages offered by solicitors, and jobs and partnerships solicitors were advertising or seeking.

In around 1900, a page containing brief notices of general professional interest was added, and soon after the Society decided to expand this by producing an improved publication with a name that indicated its wider scope - the Society's Gazette and Register.

It was produced monthly by the Solicitors' Law Stationery Society in an A5 format.

The first issue in November 1903 ran to 32 pages and enjoyed a circulation of 7,800 copies.

It contained, among other things: a report on the Solicitors Benevolent Association's annual general meeting; details of the Society's new teaching scheme as part of the establishment of its permanent school of law - which saw 80 law students studying more common subjects together; a list of additions to the library, many of which had a colonial theme, such as GE Solomon's Manual for Colonial Commissioners; and an obituary of William Dawes Freshfield, senior partner of the firm known today as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and even then one of the best-known and regarded practices in the City.

The Register took up 14 pages and included several properties for sale, such as a 1,492-acre estate near Bournemouth with 50 cattle, two farmhouses and 'good shooting', costing 25,000, and a six-bedroom house near East Grinstead, 'heated by hot water', for 2,750.

In terms of jobs, there were several solicitors in their mid-20s looking for work and requiring salaries ranging from 90 to 200 a year.

Another section no longer featured in the Gazette is that of solicitors seeking to purchase partnerships, with several in 1903 offering to pay around 500 for a share.

The cost of advertising in the Register was 2s 6d for members and 5s for non-members, with an additional 6d or 1s respectively for every 12 words exceeding 60.

Non-members had to produce a recommendation from a member before an entry was accepted.

As well as the Register, there were other advertisements, such as for Waterlow's diary for solicitors and a briefcase sold by Fisher, a shop based on the Strand.

There were eight registers, with the final one relating to general information.

The April 1904 Register contained just one, albeit intriguing, entry in this section: 'The gentleman who recently made enquiries at the "George" public house, Fort Road, Bermondsey, for Elizabeth Squirrell or Nethercott, can have that lady's address on application.'

In December 1905, the journal became known solely as the Gazette, with the Register (renamed the Registry) published as a supplement every month until 1940, when it returned to the body of the Gazette.

It was phased out in 1965.

In 1909, the Gazette published the first 'Opinion of the Council', which discussed the question of whether the vendor or purchaser should pay the costs of a third party who undertook to search for title deeds, while in November 1913, the secretary of the Society announced that he would be pleased to receive from time to time 'information respecting changes in the composition of firms'.

One of the first such notices was in July 1914, announcing that City firm Munton Morris King Gavan Duffy & Co had opened an office in Berlin - although this must have been short-lived because the First World War began a month later.

The Gazette's role as just passing on information from the Society was such that the admission of the first woman solicitor was awarded only the most oblique of references.

The 'List of gentlemen applying to be admitted as solicitors' in the November 1922 Gazette included the entry: 'Morrison, (Miss) Carrie.' Beyond that, there was no mention of this momentous event.

The following month, the heading was amended to the 'List of people applying to be admitted as solicitors'.

Shortly afterwards, it reported a council meeting at which rooms at Chancery Lane, including the coal store, were designated for conversion into 'ladies' cloakrooms'.

The Gazette was produced continuously throughout both world wars, and every issue during those periods featured a roll of honour, naming those solicitors who had died in the conflicts.

The content also became more focused on relaying proclamations, orders and rules that arose from the state of national emergency.

Those Society staff who were not called up during the Second World War were relocated to Newbury in Berkshire, although Chancery Lane continued to function to some degree.

It was only after the war that the Gazette finally began to evolve: in 1945, Reginald Hine's Confessions of an Uncommon Attorney became the first book reviewed.

The first illustration appeared in 1950 to mark the International Bar Association's London conference.

It also began accepting articles and letters from members, even though being a forum for expressing opinion was still not regarded as one of the Gazette's functions.

Writing in the Jubilee issue in January 1953, then Society President DL Bateson noted: 'The decision to publish such features as these was taken because it was felt they would add value to the Gazette as a whole by making it more readable, without in any way detracting from its usefulness as a means of communication between the council and the members of the Society.'

Features in the Jubilee issue included a look at 19th century lawyers who became authors, such as William Makepeace Thackeray, a history of the international court in The Hague and Seton Pollock's Thoughts on the solicitor's place in society, in which he predicted: 'Readers of the centenary issue of the Gazette will, in all probability, look back on this decade as a turning point in the development of the profession.' And it is true that the 1950s were the time when the profession began to shake off its Dickensian image and practices, and to mature into what we know today.

By 1953, the going rate for buying a share in a partnership, to judge by the Registry, was up to 2,000 in London.

The content of the Gazette reflected the developing profession and became increasingly bulky and interesting - it even began to give brief case reports beyond those which directly affected solicitors.

A revolutionary move came in 1966, when the decision was taken to move to an A4 format.

Not everyone liked it.

RA Samwell of Epsom wrote that he 'profoundly' regretted the change.

'It now smacks of a sophisticated monthly,' he explained oddly.

Perhaps more than anything, however, he complained that the new volumes, when bound, would not fit into existing bookcases.

'Is it too late to go back to an original form to which I do not remember any member ever taking exception? Novelty has no value per se.'

But more extensive change was just around the corner.

With more and more general professional news coming out, September 1970 saw the launch of an A3 Gazette News supplement, which was designed to 'cover items which practitioners would not necessarily wish to include in their bound copies at the end of the year'.

The main Gazette concentrated on hard law and professional issues.

The Gazette became weekly in January 1972 in a single A3 publication with news on the front cover for the first time and greater use of photographs.

'The move reflects the fact that change is taking place more quickly today than at any other period of history,' an editorial in the first issue said, adding that 'information about something so fundamental as the law should be disseminated as quickly as possible'.

That first issue also published various greetings received on the 'new Gazette', including those from Prime Minister Edward Heath and the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, as well as the less glamorous Thanet Printing Works in Ramsgate.

The launch was marked by a reception held at Chancery Lane attended by around 900 people.

A couple of months before, solicitors had been asked to 'arrange their London business for that day and support this event', but as the Gazette had no funds for hospitality, it sought voluntary donations of 2 per person to cover the cost.

The guest list for the reception was eclectic - from Lords and MPs to the director-general of BBC2, the editor of Vanity Fair, and the editor of the News of the World.

Lord Goodman proposed the toast to the Gazette.

Shortly afterwards, the Gazette acquired official recognition from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which put the average weekly circulation at 32,489.

In 1973, the Society bought the Law Guardian from the Law Guardian Publishing Company and folded it into the Gazette.

The Law Guardian was a general legal magazine with a distribution across the profession.

From then until December 2000, the fourth issue of every month was the Guardian Gazette and reflected that broader circulation, going to solicitors who were not members of the Society, barristers and legal executives.

From 1975 to 1983, the first Gazette of the month was a special business and finance issue, and the magazine continued to grow and prosper, before reverting to A4 in 1983.

News was taken off the cover, which became blue with contents, or red for the Guardian issue.

By this stage, more than 50,000 Gazettes and 75,000 Guardian Gazettes were being printed weekly.

The then editor expressed hope that readers would find the new format 'easier to read, photocopy and, above all, to store for future reference'.

The editor reported that the Gazette achieved its 'financial objectives' in full in 1982, allowing it to move to the 'more popular, and also more expensive to produce, A4 size'.

Issues of this era reflected the burgeoning application of technology to solicitors' practices, introducing a practice management section in the third issue of every month.

The first one dealt with selecting, using and developing 'micro-computer systems'.

The change of format did not harm the magazine financially, with 1983 seeing a net profit of 545,285.

Advertising rose sharply and, according to a council report in September 1983, 'advertising rates have been increased to bring them more into line with other business and professional publications'.

The next major driver of change was a new editor, Sheila Pratt, in 1987, who introduced a dedicated news section at the front end of the magazine from 1988 and recruited a news reporter.

The cover also changed, with photographs and cartoons making it a much more welcoming publication.

It continued to develop in the next few years with greater use of colour.

Competition in the marketplace also drove change.

Up until this point, the relationship with the Society was close, and Ms Pratt in her early days, like her predecessors, would consult with the secretary-general over the content.

But this was to change in the early 1990s when the council approved a full statement of editorial policy and independence.

Interviewed in 1992, Paul Venton - who spoke for the Gazette on the council - said: 'The Gazette is there as an instrument of communication - it is not there as a mouthpiece for Chancery Lane and, if the editor feels that views are being expressed in council or by anyone in the profession which are contrary to what might be regarded as the general policy of the council, then she should be free to publish.' This has continued to the present day, allowing the Gazette to be the forum for balanced coverage of Society affairs and the wider legal profession.

The Gazette as it is today really took shape in 1995, when news returned to the front cover and the contents page was dropped.

By this stage, the weekly circulation was 62,802, with the Guardian Gazette at 79,982.

Over the past eight years, the look and contents of the Gazette have continued to evolve more subtly while addressing the task of informing a profession that has become more diverse in its interests than ever before.

In 2003, the Gazette has reached the point where it has a circulation in excess of 100,000, three times that of any other legal publication, making it one of the largest business-to-business publications in the country.