Editors' Blog

Legal bodies tone up for test of strength

Posted 12/12/2006 by legalweekblogs.com SU

How much did you pay for your law firm’s logo? Well, we know how much the Law Society paid for its new logo – a cool £25,000. The good news, according to the minutes of a recent council meeting, is that the logo has been road-tested, so it is sure to be really good.

These are exciting times for UK law’s professional bodies. Thanks to the Legal Services Bill, which is set to become law during this parliamentary session, both the Bar Council and the Law Society have had to ring-fence their regulatory arms.

This has led to a flurry of strategy documents, position papers and consultation exercises as both Chancery Lane and the Bar Council move to get their houses in order in preparation for the new regime. While this has, no doubt, been good news for consultants, the upshot of the changes is healthy insofar as it has relieved the Law Society and Bar Council from having to reconcile their trade union and regulatory functions.

By all accounts the society’s new chief executive, Desmond Hudson, is licking his lips at the prospect of acting as the profession’s new champion. Witness Chancery Lane’s vociferous campaign against the Government’s proposed shake-up of legal aid (see story and another)

Sitting on the other side of the fence is the Law Society’s new regulatory board, which is soon to be renamed the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It would not be doing its job if it wasn’t looking forward to giving solicitors a thoroughly awkward time. Its chairman, Peter Williamson, is a former Law Society president. But poachers often make very good gamekeepers. He and the newly-installed chief executive, Antony Townsend, look set to become a pretty robust team.

Townsend, incidentally, used to make a living regulating dentists. So keeping the ranks of City solicitors in line should be a breeze, however vociferously they clamour for a new set of conflicts rules. So much for the authority being a toothles watchdog.

john.malpas@legalweek.com