LOCAL LAW SOCIETIES ARE TAKING A NEW COMMERCIAL APPROACH TO MEMBERS' NEEDS, WRITES JON ROBINSIn the world of the local law society (LLS), as in the profession at large, the received wisdom is that the corporate giants thrive and those at the grass roots wither.

But slowly societies are changing with the times.

The traditional modus operandi -- meeting once a month at the local golf club for a bit of a chat, as one president puts it -- while pleasant enough, hardly passes as a vital pursuit for today's solicitor.Most LLSs have existed for well over a hundred years and many, being founded in the early part of the 19th century, pre-date the National Law Society at Chancery Lane.

A sense of independence and tradition has so far secured their existence, but whether it will get them through present crises, such as the withdrawal of legal aid and a dwindling conveyancing market, remains to be seen.

The last time a survey was commissioned in 1995 by Chancery Lane's partnership commission, it revealed that less than 45% of private practice solicitors belonged to their local society.Peter Wiseman, joint secretary at the 2,500 strong Birmingham Law Society, addressed the conference of presidents and secretaries of local law societies last week in a slot entitled 'Lawyers are what they practise, not where they practise'.

Increasingly, specialist expertise -- not geographical location -- defines a solicitor, asserts the conference literature.

So where exactly does that leave LLSs?There is room for both, Mr Wiseman insists.

The specialist interest groups are, by definition, 'blinkered' by only concentrating on the one activity and leaving aside general practitioners concerns, such as IT developments and practice management issues, whereas the LLS is a 'broad church'.

Moreover, he is cautiously optimistic about the future of societies, claiming there has been a recent rekindling of interest.

More are taking a new commercial approach, for example by providing training courses and opening recruitment services.

However, he warns, 'We've got to make ourselves really relevant to our membership, otherwise people will simply not join'.Sheffield District Incorporated Law Society has embraced this new commercialism.

Vice-president Ian Buxton acknowledges a gener al trend of waning interest and candidly admits that local interest fell to such a level as to threaten the life of the 125-year old society.

At the beginning of the 1990s it had 400 members -- but two years ago that number had halved.And so the society began a full review of its activities to see whether it still had a role.

They decided it did, but acknowledged that it needed an injection of new ideas and services.

As a result of the rethink, the Society set up a training sub-committee and became an accredited provider of CPD courses at rates 'substantially less' than other providers.

Over the past 12 months, it has seen its membership increase by 26% to 351.This month the society launches its own recruitment agency covering the Sheffield and South Yorkshire regions following the example of Bristol Law Society's successful service.

The scheme is a joint venture run with local recruitment consultant and solicitor Sue Ross.

According to the society, commercial agencies charge 20% to 25% of the first year's salaries for a solicitor successfully placed, whereas 'Sue Ross legal' will charge only 15% of the first year's salary.Inspiration for the scheme came from Bristol's thriving employment agency that has been in existence for 14 years.

Last year the one full-time staff member and one part-timer placed 140 solicitors in new jobs in the Bristol area and brought in £108,000 for the society.

President Nigel Puddicombe says, no doubt with understatement, that many societies are 'fairly envious' of the success of the project, but also 'fairly philosophical' that it could not work everywhere.

In Bristol, the scheme was set up before other commercial providers were established.

Back in Sheffield, Mr Buxton believes they have spotted a gap in the local market.

'This project is a complete novelty and I don't know where it's taking us,' says Mr Buxton, but it is an exciting time for the society.Complaints handling is another possible role for LLSs and many societies run their own conciliation services.

The scheme in Birmingham is seen by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) as a possible prototype for other LLSs to follow.

The benefits are obvious for the profession.

Last year, it handled 260 complaints, and of those, only half became live matters and none was referred to the OSS.

One of their secretarial staff spends one and a half days a week working on complaints and, as Mr Wiseman points out, the pressing question is whether Chancery Lane will fund such operations.

Neeta Desor, president of the Central and South Middlesex Law Society, bluntly says: 'At the end of the day, if we're asked to handle it we must have funding.'But the success of societies depends upon the commitment of local solicitors, which can never be taken for granted.

In South Wales, Mark Harvey, the public relations officer at the Law Society of Swansea and District says that -- with the exception of the Cardiff Society -- apathy towards LLSs pervades the profession.

'The committee members who do work, work very hard but unfortunately Welsh practitioners continue to bury their heads in the sand and do not want to be helped,' he observes.

Having made their money in the 1970s and 1980s, he says, they do not seem too concerned that the pressures of the solicitors' indemnity fund and the legal aid reforms could bury their firms.For example, Mr Harvey says that he tried to launch a 'Save Legal Aid' campaign and canvassed the local profession for case studies of clients who would be deprived legal representation under the reforms.

He received national W elsh press -- but without any help from his peers.

Swansea joined up with a large course provider to provide training at 'rock bottom' prices, but he adds that it is still having problems with getting the numbers.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, he jokes.In West London, the Central and South Middlesex Law Society has more high street practitioner members than any other LLS.

President Neeta Desor describes the 400-strong membership as 'not dwindling, but not excellent'.

The issue there is not a lack of interest, but a lack of time.

High street practitioners have so much on their plates that it is hard for them to spend too much time away from their busy practices, she argues.However a packed training programme has attracted many members, she says.

Another attraction is the web site -- the best LLS site on the Internet, claims Ms Desor -- which has links to member firms and has attracted members from as far afield as the US.

Other societies that have successfully embraced cyberspace are North Staffordshire, which has linked up with Staffordshire University, and Nottinghamshire, which has a similar link with Nottingham Trent University.In Birmingham, Mr Wiseman acknowledges a tension between appealing to the interests of both the high street and big national firms.

But he remains optimistic that there is a desire by practitioners for a single profession with both sides supporting a common interest through participation in their LLSs.

He recently met up with the managing partners of the top half dozen firms in the city, and reports that they were keen to remain members.In the north east, Newcastle Law Society has seen a recent dramatic reawakening of interest.

It has 900 members out of a potential 1,025 and the president of Newcastle Law Society, Lucy Winskell, attributes its current success to a new, energetic younger committee.

She is a former chairwoman of the Young Solicitors Group and at 35 is the society's youngest president and its first woman president.Ms Winskell, together with eight society members, recently returned from a 10-day trip to Kenya as part of a twinning programme between the society and the Rift Valley Law Society of Kenya.

The ongoing project -- funded by grants from the Law Society Challenge Fund and the British Council -- is designed to support the rule of law and promote respect for human rights by supporting local lawyers and their law societies.

She says that their involvement has put the 'international spotlight' on the Kenyan authorities and, as a result, 'they tend not to be arrested in the middle of the night'.'It is because of you I am free,' Juma Kiplenge, a young Kenyan lawyer told Iain Nicholson, a former Newcastle president earlier in the year (see [1999] Gazette, 16 June, 14).

In the most recent exchange trip, the Newcastle solicitors stayed in the homes of their Kenyan colleagues and discussed how they could organise a pro bono duty solicitors' scheme.

They also brought with them unwanted law books, and now the society has 'the best law library in Kenya'.

A side effect is that the project has 'reinvigorated' the society and boosted membership.

She reports that one 'cynical' local solicitor contacted the society after a Rift Valley bash to say that he never knew Law Society events could be such fun.Ms Winskell believes that the onus is on societies to make themselves interesting to the profession.

'I think we've always got to be re-inventing ourselves to make sure that we are still relevant,' she says.TOM BLASS TALKS TO FIVE LOCAL LAW SOCIETIES WHICH ARE PARTICULARLY POLITICALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY ACTIVENot many local law societies are well known for their dynamism.

But here and there, societies rouse themselves to break the mould.

Some society members are motivated politically, and having perceived an injustice, use their local society as a vehicle for righting wrongs.

Others -- like the City of London's law society -- have a role virtually thrust upon them.Milton Keynes Law Society has probably been one of the most actively -- and controversially -- political local law societies in the course of the last two years, particularly in its vociferous opposition to non-voluntary Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) contributions.

Neil Jopson, the chairman of the society, says that the society's council felt 'to a man' that the profession had been 'for too long at the hands of the bureaucracy of the Law Society'.

The society's campaign was precipitated in August 1998 by what Milton Keynes' Law Society council members felt were exorbitant and 'uncommercial' demands for SIF contributions.

Mr Jopson attended a meeting of the Millennium Group, chaired by Wendy Grey, as an observer for the Milton Keynes Law Society, at the time that Michael Dalton was suggesting judicial review of the SIF.Mr Jopson says that his society felt it was 'ridiculous' to sue the Law Society, and that the interests of lawyers would be best served by requisitioning a special general meeting.

'The rest', he says, 'is history'.

Although he vows that if he and his council colleagues perceive 'further fudging and delay' on the part of the Law Society, they will seek to refer the issue to a Department of Trade and Industry investigation.Having lead the consolidation of Surrey's three erstwhile local law societies in 1992-3, Paul Marsh, national Law Society council member for Surrey, is no stranger to local law society activism.

Recently Mr Marsh, senior partner at the Kingston firm Carter Bells, has been instrumental in the creation of a local Lawyers' Defence Union.

'The Surrey Law Society was interested in trying to fill a gap,' he says, 'by providing assistance to law firms without the broader concern of public policy.'The society made contact with the Scottish LDU, and having hosted a presentation by the Scots, its members believed that they would like to see a comparable scheme south of the border.

'The ball fell in my court,' says Mr Marsh, 'and I picked it up and ran with it.'The society called an extraordinary general meeting, and £5,000 of Surrey Law Society's funds were put towards establishing the Defence Union -- with the unanimous support of the society's members.

Two local firms donated a further £1,000 each.

The scheme was launched on 1 December last year, currently extending to Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Kent.Mr Marsh has observed that there is a gulf between local societies that are prepared to be active, and those that are 'somewhat more moribund'.

The factor that he believes has really given a boost to the dynamism of the Surrey society is that it has been able to employ two part-time, paid administrators.But local law society activities can go beyond serving the interests of their members and other lawyers.

The 500-strong Central & South Middlesex Law Society recently won a grant from the national Law Society's Law Challenge Fund for its schools programme -- visiting local secondary schools and giving presentations about the work of lawyers, and entering the legal profession.

The society's president, Neeta Desor, remarks that the programme 'has been very well received.

We've visited three schools so far, and we're looking at how we can do it again this year'.Central & South Middlesex is also committed to providing its members with value-for-money training.

The society strives to host at least two lectures a month, either at Ealing Town Hall or at South Thames University -- with which it enjoys close ties -- charging £25 for a lecture worth two CPD points.The idea of bridging the gap between the Society and community was at the heart of Birmingham law society's Challenge Fund newsletter, Folklaw, which was produced with the fund money.

Birmingham law society council member Peter Wiseman explains: 'The challenge was in getting legal information into the community at large.' The Challenge Fund provided the society with an initial £5,000 grant with which it was able to launch a first issue of Folklaw last October.

The eight-page newsletter covered topics that included wheel clamping, will-making, the perils of ambulance chasers, and what one should do if arrested.

Twenty thousand copies were distributed around Birmingham, and Mr Wiseman says that the initial response has been extremely encouraging.

He forecasts that Folklaw should be self-supporting within twelve months.The intention is to publish quarterly, at a cost of £3,500 per issue.

All of Birmingham law society's 2,200-odd members receive their own copy, and plans for the future include a celebrity column (Clare Short wrote an article for the first issue), a legal problem page, and a forum for non-lawyers to address local issues.Well away from the high street, the members of the City of London Law Society have slightly different concerns.

More than 15% of the legal profession of England & Wales is based in the City, and with a membership in the region of 2,500, the society is one of the largest.

An advantage of being based in the Square Mile is that the society has access to considerable resources -- both human and fiscal.

Recently the society established a pro bono referral service, whereby skill-sets and experience can be married to potential pro bono clients.On the other hand, the society currently offers no training programmes per se.

Tony Sacker, chairman of the society's main committee points out that because so many of the City's firms conduct training in-house, demand for courses is low.

But the society does maintain around 15 technical committees, each of which has a membership of between 15 and 20 lawyers.

'These are composed of leaders in their field, usually the heads of department,' says Sacker.

'They do a number of things, including reviewing legislation, and making representations to the relevant bodies.' These often run alongside or duplicate the membership of the Law Society's committees, and provide an extra forum for discussion.

In addition to the committees, the City society also runs a number of working parties which in the past have made vociferous contributions to the SIF debate, and has voiced potentially far-reaching recommendations concerning limited liability partnerships.Mr Sacker is anxious that misleading barriers are not created, dividing 'City' lawyers from the rest of the profession, but that the interests of commercial lawyers throughout the country are fully appreciated by the rest of the Law Society.

The recommendations of the City of London Law Society's committees and working parties are of relevance and interest to the whole of the commercial profession; for example, the society recently authored the 4th edition of the Certificate of Title for lawyers reporting to financial institutions in the City of London.

Ano ther recent initiative -- still in the process of being finalised, is that of opening up membership to any lawyer, qualified anywhere in the world, that is practising in the Square Mile.ANDREW HOLROYD AND GERALD NEWMAN LOOK AT THE MANY CHALLENGES FACING LOCAL LAW SOCIETIES IF THEY ARE TO SURVIVESolicitors are what they practise, not where they practise.

When lawyers meet, their common bond is more likely to be their field of expertise, than a similar physical location or regional accent.

Where geography once defined a lawyer, it is now specialisation.

The personal injury lawyer in Newcastle is likely to have more in common with a personal injury lawyer in Worthing than with a pension specialist in the office next door.Three quarters of solicitors see themselves as specialists.

Unsurprisingly, there are at least a hundred specialist groups ranging from the well-resourced Solicitors Family Law Association and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, with thousands of members, to modest niche organisations like the Housing Law Practitioners Group.

In addition, there are the Law Society groups, plus the Law Society's two specialist sections, the Probate Section and Law Management Section.

Finally, come the specialist panels, the Legal Aid Board's (LAB) franchising scheme, Accident Line, and others all of which have minimum requirements for membership.So how can these overlapping channels be rationalised? How can unity be maintained in a diverse legal world? Enter the Law Society's sections and specialisation task force, set up as one of the Society's 12 strategic priorities.The task force, in its consultation paper, argues that it is not for the Law Society to impose its own grand plan.

Instead, the energy coming from the profession's grass roots, and its efforts to cope with the rapidly changing legal marketplace, should be enhanced through new arrangements between the Law Society and practitioner associations, groups and sections.

Based on mutual self-interest, better co-operation and communication will be encouraged, and support provided.

The task force also proposes that sections should be created to cater for conveyancers, ADR specialists, and international practice.As well as the growth of specialisation, there are four other challenges facing local law societies, which will test their ability to survive, re-invent themselves, and compete.

Almost half of all solicitors now work in firms with 11 or more partners, while there is a growing number of national firms.

While low cost local training remains an essential for High Street practitioners, these larger firms have in-house training, library, and other resources, making them self-sufficient.

One challenge for local law societies is to consider how to serve all these different customers effectively.Fee-earning targets, a long hours culture, and hardening of competition, mean that fewer solicitors can find the time for active membership.

Some societies struggle to find activists willing to stand for office -- or even to join the committee.

So the third challenge is to go beyond the language of professional cohesion, and to consider how local law societies can contribute to career advancement, or to new client development, or other tangible benefits for the individual.The on-line world is boundary-free.

But the proliferation of Internet services is making it harder and harder for consumers and business people to track down the help they need, paradoxically creating a new opportunity for a local service.

Another challenge is for the local society to become its commun ity's portal to legal information and services.The final challenge is offered by the government's regional programme.

Contrasting with increasing globalisation -- affecting even law firms -- the government has devolved power in Scotland and Wales, has launched unified government offices for the six English regions, and is setting up regional development councils, foreshadowed in last year's competitiveness White Paper.

The LAB has already established regional legal services committees.

How will local law societies take advantage, on behalf of their members, of new opportunities for influence, networking, and funding?These same challenges face the Law Society itself, and our accountability to members.

Should the apparatus of the Law Society be more to specialist associations? Could our six regional offices (Cardiff, Bristol, Wakefield, Preston, Cambridge, and London, with a total staff of 15) deliver more Law Society services locally?The annual Challenge Fund for local law societies has successfully encouraged initiatives to improve communications, address equality and diversity issues, and raise the profile of the profession.

Could eligibility be extended to other organisations? Should the majority of seats on the Council (61 out of 75) continue to be based on geographical constituencies?