Specialists on the hustingsAlastair Collett applauds the Law Society's appeal for groups to become involved in the council's elections but warns they must overcome obstaclesThere will have been a sense of relief among many solicitors as the news came through that, subject to the vote at a special general meeting on 28 February, the Law Society Council will act as an electoral college for the future selection of its office holders.This is one step in the reform process since more detailed work is required to enable the Society to deliver on all the proposals, and to engage the profession's interest and support in being a model regulator and effective representative body.One of the other principal proposals of the ongoing reform process is that, while removing from individuals the ability to vote for a president, the council becomes a more representative body.

Individuals can continue to relate to it, not merely by being able to chose council members on the basis of locality but also on the basis of specialism or sectional interest.

The proposed enlargement of the council to up to 120 seats will mean this can take place.

The City of London Law Society agreed with the consultation document proposal that council seats should increase for this purpose.The document suggested representative selection through the alternatives of national ballot of the profession or nomination by existing specialist groups.

The City of London society submitted that the national Society should deliver a representative system based on a national ballot process for practice areas and sectional seats wherever possible.

It was submitted that the Society should develop an appropriate programme for practice area seats that reflects modern legal practice, the specialist practice areas, and sectional interests across the profession.

The programme should reflect the numbers who practise in each areas with most new seats in specialist, rather than sectional, areas.It was generally considered that these seats should not be awarded through the identification of suitable existing groups - even if they were to seek to organise some form of electoral process - since such groups would not usually be Law Society bodies and might have non-solicitor members.We suggested that it was desirable that direct election to practice area seats by individual solicitors be achieved.

This could be done by the Society establishing a system, possibly linked to annual practising certificate renewal, whereby individuals indicate the areas in which they practise or are interested.

These may be specialist practice areas, such as commercial property or tax, or sectional interests, such as sole practitioner or young solicitor.

They would be entitled to vote in relation to those areas with the number of options probably limited to two or three.The Gazette has published a notice from the Law Society, asking for expressions of interest from specialist groups about the proposed 39 council seats for specialist practitioner groups (see page 19).

It requires each applicant to give details about the number of solicitor members represented and how it would organise an election of its members.It will be interesting to see the take-up of expressions of interest from such groups, since they will face significant obstacles in bringing elections.

In particular, where such groups represent interests wider than just those of solicitors, they will need to demonstrate to their wider membership the relevance of their application to the Law Society to conduct an election for the council.

They will also need to show the Law Society the basis on which an election from such a group will be representative of specialist solicitors rather than, perhaps, of the relevant group.The Society may have to develop a practice area programme if enough groups with appropriate representative status do not emerge - or exist - and in order that the overwhelming majority of solicitors do get a practice area vote.Much work still needs to be done in this area, but the first steps are encouraging - and with the commitment to reform we can expect more good news.Alastair Collett is a partner at City law firm Denton Wilde Sapte and chairs the City of London Law Society's working party on Law Society reform