Law Society of Scotland gets backing of its members ahead of review of legal services in Scotland

Graham Matthews - Image credit: Law Society of Scotland

The Law Society of Scotland has the backing of its members to continue its current regulatory role ahead of a review of legal services to be published later this year.

Ninety-five per cent of Scottish solicitors interviewed for the Law Society’s annual survey, which was carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the society, thought it should continue to be responsible for representation, support and regulation.

Meanwhile, 91 per cent of respondents said that ‘the society is an effective regulator of the solicitor profession’ and 84 per cent said that ‘intervening in firms where a critical failure has been identified’, should be high priority for the Law Society.

Regulatory duties, including setting standards and updating practice rules, investigating conduct complaints and prosecuting cases before the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal and inspecting firms to ensure compliance with the accounting rules were also ranked as high priority.

An independent review of the regulation of legal services, led by Esther Roberton, chair of NHS 24, is expected to make recommendations to modernise the regulation of legal services and complaints handling to the Scottish Government by August 2018.

In its submission to the review earlier this year, the Law Society set out its recommendations for reforms, including retaining an independent body not connected to government to regulate the profession, increased powers to regulate law firms as well as individual solicitors and a new system for dealing with legal complaints.  

The majority of respondents to the Law Society survey, 62 per cent, were optimistic about the future of the profession, but there are differences across sectors, with much greater confidence among in-house solicitors than high street practitioners.

Legal aid and Brexit were two of the key negative issues facing the profession raised by Scottish solicitors in the survey.

Nearly 80 per cent expressed concern that current policy on legal aid puts the principle of access to justice for the poorest in society at risk, while 57 per cent of Scottish solicitors believe that Brexit will have a negative impact on their organisations over the next two years.

However, 76 per cent of Scottish solicitors said they were confident that their businesses were prepared for the new GDPR rules about management of data, which coming into force in May.

Graham Matthews, President of the Law Society, said: “Overall, the results are positive both in terms of the profession’s outlook for the future and their assessment of our performance. 

“We are however, acutely aware that there is always work to be done to meet and exceed our members’ needs and protect the public interest.”