Excel

We excel as a world leading professional body with technology and inclusion at its core.

• Our approach and technology enables a diverse community of volunteers and a high performing staff team.
• Our processes and policies are secure, agile and are guided by our values.
• Our disciplined financial plan drives our priorities, delivering efficiency and value for money.

To deliver on our objectives, the Law Society needs to be the most effective and efficient organisation possible.

We need to remain an employer that attracts and retains talented individuals. We must be an organisation in which professionals from all walks of life, solicitors and non-solicitors, want to volunteer their time and believe their contribution is valued.

Importantly, we need to ensure all our people – staff and volunteers – have the facilities and tools needed to excel in their roles.

At the heart of this work is a renewed commitment to embrace technology. The Law Society was already on a journey of digital reform with new internal systems; a vastly improved online training offering for our members; and more efficient online registration and regulatory processes. However, the events of 2020 have shown everyone what is possible and created a new impetus to change.

The digitalisation of our committees and their meetings offers a chance to engage and involve people who would not otherwise be able to contribute. A greater use of flexible and home working can create a better work-life balance for our staff and keep the Society as a competitive employer. There are major exciting opportunities still before us to utilise smarter and better linked digital systems to quicken our processes and improve our decisions.

As an organisation, we also want to act responsibly with respect to the environment and the fight to avert a global climate crisis. We want to begin taking steps on a journey that will see the Law Society become a carbon-neutral organisation and help lead wider change in the legal sector that sets a proud example for others to follow.

However, we must be live to the very different financial backdrop facing the Law Society over the next two years. Our decision to reduce the practising certificate and accounts fees by 20% for 2020/21 was an important demonstration of our commitment to help the solicitor profession through the economic storm. This decision impacted significantly on our financial reserves which will need to be replenished over time if we are to maintain our resilience for future unpredictable events. It will also require us to make difficult spending decisions for the two years this strategy covers.

The financial decisions we have taken mean we will not have the resources to do all the things we would like over the next two years. It will require us to be disciplined and mean we make choices between different projects and activities. When we decide to do something new, it will mean something else needs to be made less of a priority or stopped altogether. In making these choices, we need to be open and transparent with our members and stakeholders.

We will also need to be innovative in driving change in our sources of income such as sponsorship, training and investment. Every pound we make commercially is a pound we do not have to charge on core membership fees. The backdrop over the next two years will, unquestionably, be more challenging but diversifying our income will be as important as ever.

One area that will remain a top priority is our commitment to equality and diversity within our organisation. We are proud that our governing Council has become increasingly diverse over recent years. The work of our Equality and Diversity Committee is recognised as leading and innovative. Our ‘great places to work’ staff survey results are often strongest on issues relating to being treated fairly, irrespective of gender, race, disability or sexual orientation. We want and need to do more of this work over these next two years, leading the change we encourage within legal firms and across the profession.