Annual report 2024

The Law Society continues to be a powerful voice for the profession and the public, particularly in relation to reform of the regulation of legal services in Scotland and proposed  major changes to our criminal justice system. We have also spoken out loudly on the issue of legal aid, which has seen decades of underfunding and has had a hugely detrimental impact, both on the public who need advice on often complex legal problems and the solicitors who remain working in this area.

The Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, first introduced to the Scottish Parliament in April 2023, has been a predominant feature of my time as President and an important issue that has existed for as long as I have been a Council Member of the Society, that is since 2017. While not occurring during the period of this annual report (up to 31 October 2024), it is a huge success for the Society for this Bill to have been passed by MSPs in its present form, in May 2025. This marks another major step towards the much needed and long overdue changes in the regulation of legal services in Scotland, that will provide benefit to both legal services consumers and the legal profession.

Legal aid has also been a key challenge for the Society over many years.  Although, following significant effort and ongoing liaison with government around setting up a mechanism for regular legal aid fee reviews, there was little to no progress achieved, we have continued to liaise closely with government on the future of legal aid and to call for its investment in legal services for those who need legal help the most.

This is a challenge that will continue to be a focus for the Society until a reasonable and appropriate outcome is achieved. I am hopeful that progress will result from our highlighting of the issue in public forums, our ongoing engagement and discussions with government and the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s civil legal aid inquiry. Increased commitment from the Scottish Government will be required to ensure that access to justice is available to the Scottish public, regardless of financial means.

Alongside these high profile, complex and challenging issues facing our profession, there have also been many other important aspects to my time in office.

2024 marked the Law Society’s 75^th anniversary and this provided a welcome opportunity to celebrate the many achievements of our members. We involved members at all stages of their careers in our anniversary year activities, as well as launching our inaugural Legal Pioneer Awards, which were awarded to six very worthy winners at our Annual Conference in October 2024. I also had the pleasure of presenting two Honorary Membership awards to members with long-standing connections to the Society, former President Christine McLintock, and the former convener of our Property Law Committee, Ross MacKay, at a special 75^th anniversary event at the Scottish Parliament.

Another of the highlights of my presidency has been to meet, listen to and learn from our solicitor members right across the country. From Dingwall to Dumfries I have heard firsthand about the issues that most affect our members, and considered how the Society can assist. Among the many issues raised during these meetings, legal aid and recruitment and retention were discussed at most – and these are both issues on which the Society is actively engaged. It has been clear to me how committed our members are to the important work they do and the diversity of clients and communities that they serve.

A particularly pleasurable part of the role of president has been welcoming new solicitors to the profession and to the Law Society. Record numbers of new solicitors are continuing to join the profession, and I have presided over no fewer than 11 admission ceremonies and admitted 707 new solicitors. It has been an absolute joy and privilege to meet the next generation of Scottish solicitors, and see their enthusiasm and pride in their chosen profession as they start out in their careers, surrounded by friends and family.

It is vital that talented people from different backgrounds continue to be attracted to law as a career, to ensure that we have a profession that reflects the society it serves – and that we ensure those who choose to join the profession go on to fulfil their potential during long careers in law.

Throughout my time as president, I have seen that Scottish solicitors form part of a collegiate profession, bound by our professional values and committed to the rule of law and to helping others uphold their rights. This is true whatever their role, seniority or legal speciality, and whether working in-house or in private practice.

Finally, I want to thank my Council and Society colleagues for all that they do on behalf of the profession and the public.

In particular, I want to record the Society’s thanks to its former Chief Executive, Diane McGiffen, for her time in post from January 2022 to April 2025, for her championing during that time of the Scottish legal profession and the Society’s work, and her spearheading of the Society’s strategic development. We now look forward to working with our new Chief Executive, Ben Kemp, who I know will ably assist us in meeting future challenges and leveraging further opportunities for Scotland’s solicitor profession and the wider legal sector.

It has been a very great privilege and honour for me to lead the Council and Board of the Law Society of Scotland, and my profession, during the last year.

Susan Murray, President

May 2025

Supporting our members to thrive is core to our work. Over 2023-24 we continued to evolve our CPD offering for our members, delivering 98 unique CPD and training events for members, in addition to 19 member engagement forums where we heard directly from members across Scotland about their interests and concerns. Over 1,400 delegates registered for our flagship Annual Conference and over 520 delegates registered for our Law and Technology Conference. Both of these events were free to members, highlighting the popularity of adopting a hybrid format along with highly topical content.

As part of our work to deliver modern and effective regulation that is independent, proportionate and risk-based, our Regulatory Directorate undertook extensive work to improve conduct complaint handling. We also worked with the Scottish Government and other stakeholders in relation to conduct complaints where health was an issue and reviewed and updated our terms of business guidance and rules relating to a solicitor’s duty to co-operate with the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

Ensuring we continue to drive innovation and efficiency is essential to our modernisation plans, and we continued to improve the processes involved in supporting our Board and Council, with a new action plan to be taken forward in the next operating year.

Our people strategy, launched in 2023, aims to ensure that we are a responsible, values-based employer and have the necessary resources to support and serve our members and act in the public interest. We also made progress in updating our internal processes and progressed our digital transformation programme to enhance security and drive best practice.

The rule of law, independence of the legal profession and access to justice are fundamental to all of us. It’s why the Society strives to be an influential voice on public policy decision-making on behalf of the profession and in the public interest.

We continued to speak out on behalf of the profession as key Bills directly concerning the legal sector progressed through the Scottish Parliament. These included reforming the law around judicial factors, with a Bill eventually passing in December 2024. This will bring significant improvements when arrangements are needed to safeguard money and other assets.

While supportive of aims to embed trauma-informed practice, we continued to champion the interests of justice and the right to a fair trial as the Victims, Witnesses and Criminal Reform (Scotland) Bill continued to progress through the Scottish Parliament. Our strong opposition, alongside the judiciary and others, to proposals which would have allowed sweeping new powers for Scottish Government ministers to directly intervene in regulating the profession under the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, saw this dropped from Stage 2 of the Bill, safeguarding the independence of the legal profession.

In addition to these major Bills, our respected policy team and committees responded to 67 consultations, worked on 18 newly introduced Bills and participated in 10 parliamentary evidence sessions across a wide range of issues. It is disappointing however to report a lack of progress in legal aid, which led to us withdrawing from a Scottish Government project to establish a review mechanism, alongside assurance of fee uplifts. Despite this we took forward plans for a major, public facing campaign highlighting the impact years of underfunding have on members of the public, including the most vulnerable in our society.

More positively, 2024 marked a special year for the Society as we commemorated our 75^th anniversary. Scottish solicitors do incredible work and throughout our anniversary year we highlighted the achievements of our members – including our inaugural Legal Pioneer Awards, with six winners chosen to receive awards at our annual conference.

We also introduced a new look for the Law Society, updating our branding to better reflect our role within a contemporary, dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable legal sector. Additionally, we launched a new, fully online Journal with our partners at Think Publishing to provide more regular updates and timely coverage for members.

In addition to providing support and speaking out on behalf of the profession, it’s important that we are leading the profession on key issues such as sustainability, equality, diversity and inclusion, including social mobility.

During 2023-24 we launched a new sustainability resource hub for members, marking our commitment to engaging with the profession on this issue. Equality, diversity and inclusion also remained core to our work in ensuring the profession attracts talented people from all backgrounds and reflects the society it serves. It’s also important to how we operate as an organisation and we were proud to be awarded gold status Leader in Diversity accreditation from the National Centre for Diversity in February 2024 - wonderful recognition of our progress to further embed equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work.

All of these achievements, and many more, were made possible by the solicitors and lay members who volunteer their time and expertise to ensure the Law Society as a professional body delivers for solicitors and the public. I am also incredibly proud of the professional, dedicated and talented team of staff at the Society, who work so hard to support and serve our members, and ensure we maintain high professional standards by regulating effectively in the public interest

I also want to recognise and pay tribute to Diane McGiffen who was chief executive of the Law Society during the operating year covered by this report. Diane left the Society in April 2025 with our thanks and very best wishes for the future.

You can read more about our work in our annual report 2023-24. Please do get in touch about the aspects that interest you.

Kevin Lang, Interim Chief Executive

May 2025