The Law Society : SNELS : Council Member report

Chancery Lane
March 2021
CM Brief

As Law Society Council Constituency Member for Suffolk and North Essex I represent SNELS members nationally both on TLS Council, the Conveyancing and Land Law Committee (CLLC) and on the Property Section (PS) Executive Committee.

SNELS : Council Member report
The Law Society : SNELS : Council Member report


CM Activity

   TLS CLLC          :  12th January 2021          

   TLS PS Exec     :  21st January 2021  

   TLS Council       :  27th January 2021, 25th February 2021

I am engaged with Council, CLLC and PS daily, and via Teams and Zoom supplementing E Mail. There are various consultations in which I participate in on a daily basis via E Mail, Teams etc, in order to assist input to the TLS offering to Members.

CM formal meetings: TLS CLLC:  16th March 2021, TLS PS: 18th March 2021,  TLS Council:  23rd March 2021  

Purpose: TLS is the voice of Solicitors : driving excellence in the profession and safeguarding the rule of law


Personnel :

1. President:
TLS President David Greene has noted to Council that there is an ongoing dispute with a former client of his firm in the SDT involving unsubstantiated allegations. The President indicates that these allegations have been dismissed many times and is confident that they will be dismissed again. Nonetheless he is mindful that having to defend against such might distract from his work on behalf of the profession as President when it is facing the most challenging of times. Cognisant of his professional obligations to TLS and memberswith profound personal regret he has indicated his belief that the best interests of TLS would be served by him stepping away from his role of President during the course of those proceedings, with effect from 19 Mar 21 instead of at the end of his term Oct 21. His role and responsibilities will thus be undertaken by I Stephanie Boyce, DVP.

We pay tribute to this honourable gesture made by a genuinely professional and most worthy man – and view his as an example we should all be mindful to emulate in such circumstances.

2. Permanent Staff:
TLS has made changes to a number of staff teams. These changes follow on from investments made in infrastructure and technology, changes to the leadership team and new structures already in place in several teams including Future and Insight, Finance and Human Resources. Alongside the structural changes TLS has also centralised content management and product and service creation processes.

Constitutional


The implementation of the decisions occasioned from the online ballot of Law Society members (changes to Council and the introduction of a term limit for Council members) will be imposed from the time of the next AGM (October 2021)

The process for making the appointments to PRAC Committees becoming due in October 2021 is now under way.

Member Experience

TLS will implement the reorganisation above. There are a number of vacancies to fill; the first round of ads has now closed with more going live this month on the TLS ‘careers’ site, and the permanent staff are working through the interview process. The new structure in the Commercial & Partnerships area is now live, and the new structures in Member Experience & Services came into effect from 1st February.

Strategic Planning

The planning process for the 2021/22 business plan was discussed at the Council Meeting on 25th February (The Council strategic planning event – SPE) against the backdrop that the legal sector continues its growth in contribution to the UK economy with more solicitors being admitted to the roll year on year. But the growth rate in solicitors is slowing and FTE legal sector staff numbers have been declining in the same period that saw a spike in the number of legal tech companies founded globally.

The focus of SPE was to:

  • Share a detailed analysis of the external environment including key drivers for Members in the short, medium, and long term and the implications for the legal services sector and TLS;
  • Share how TLS member experience strategy has been shaped to address these issues seeking feedback on implementation plans
  • Get feedback on how policy agenda and themes can continue to best align with the drivers.

Specific strategy discussion points were:

  • What professional issues do members worry about most?
  • What TLS benefits help reduce these worries, and why is TLS better placed than other organisations to provide this support?
  • How can TLS help members meet competitive threats, market their businesses, and adopt technology?
  • Why does membership of TLS matter (to you)?

Review of key policy priorities to which TLS devotes the majority of its resources, communications and political capital were reviewed, to ‘sense check’ themes, gain thoughts and reflect on whether they remain appropriate over the next three-year planning horizon resulting in a robust group discussion: Should our current priority themes remain the priority for the next three years noting particularly:

  • Promoting access to Justice
  • Upholding the rule of law
  • Regulation
  • Promoting a modern, diverse and inclusive profession
  • Supporting the economic value and viability of members’ businesses.

Unsurprisingly from Members’ perspective the last item occasioned more comment support and attention than the permanent staff perhaps were anticipating, perhaps suggesting why the last ballot of members commanded such a poor response from members generally and resulted in such changes as are now in place and which the Suffolk and North Essex Law Society, Local Government Lawyers Association and many other strategic groups around the country, did not support.

Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF)

In response to a request made by TLS, in June 2020 a decision was made by the SRA Board extend the availability of post six year run-off (PSYRO) cover through SIF for a one year period until 30th September 2021. This was considered by the SRA Board to be “sufficient to allow the market to decide whether and, if so, how to develop products that could offer post six year run off cover.” The SRA Board Chair confirmed that “we stand ready to help facilitate discussions but think those likely to be most affected – TLS and the insurance market – need to take the lead.”

 
TLS and the SRA agreed to work together on the development of a potential alternative solution following the closure of SIF. The focus for TLS has been to engage with a range of insurance industry stakeholders who have experience in solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) in England and Wales as we consider an open market solution to be the most realistic long-term option, particularly in view of the position adopted by the SRA relating to a limited one-year extension of SIF.

 
The Chair of TLS PII Committee and TLS staff have attended meetings with several PII brokers and underwriters. The conversations focused on potential replacement options for SIF, the challenges posed by current market conditions, general market appetite and the requirements and needs that brokers and underwriters would have if they were to take forward any potential product.

TLS continues with an ongoing assessment of options for a PSYRO solution following the planned closure of the SIF by the end of Sep 21. TLS is holding open market conversations, and examining the challenges around a PSYRO solution, and next steps via the a TLS working group: which continues to collate data, evidence, and consider the options available to find an outcome acceptable for members.

Policy reporting to Council

Council will have specific policy discussions on the agenda of each Council meeting and TLS permanent staff are in the process of developing further a plan of suitable subjects for the rest of the year. Council also asked for greater clarity and more information about the policy work undertaken by TLS to be available for members generally.

A significant amount of information is already contained in the report on each of TLS policy themes (the Strategy, Influence and Impact report), however, it may not be in the format which best meets Council members’ needs. With this in mind, once new teams in the Member Experience directorate are established, they will convene a small focus group of Council members to understand what information they need from the permanent staff, and how it can best be presented.

 
At each Council meeting it is intended that be allocated a time slot to speak to the report on each of the policy themes to ensure this information is accessible to CMs. It is intended that this happens alongside the Board Reports for the Chair of the Policy and Regulatory Affairs Committee (PRAC), and for the Chair of the Membership and Communications Committee (MCC).

CV 19

TLS has been written to LC raising concerns on safety in courts caused by the spread of new variants of the CV 19 virus. SoS has been asked to to ensure that solicitors who are critical workers are prioritised in the next stages of the CV 19 rollout.

TLS latest CV 19 guidance can be found here : https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/coronavirus/working-safely-during-lockdown

Influencing for Change

CEO TLS Paul Tennant attended a new year business briefing with the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Trade Secretary and the then Business Secretary where the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and legal services was discussed.

At the end of 2020 TLS commissioned research on TLS ‘s reputation with external stakeholders including MPs. TLS ranked:

•     1 out of 7 membership bodies on awareness amongst MPs                 (89%)

•     2 out of 7 membership bodies on credibility amongst MPs                    (52%)

•     1 out of 7 membership bodies on persuasiveness amongst MPs         (47%).

Roger Buston                  TLS Council Member SNELS

Birkett Long LLP               Mar 21

Mobile                 :            07 770 305 977

E Mail                  :                                                                                                                                                               roger.buston@birkettlong.co.uk.

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