Influence

We influence to preserve an independent solicitor profession and fair legal system.

• Our collaborative approach ensures we shape the decisions affecting the legal sector’s recovery.
• Our representative voice on the rule of law and access to justice has a positive impact in Scotland, the UK and internationally.
• Our proposals for a modern and robustly regulated legal services sector are implemented.

The decisions of others — the Scottish and UK governments and their agencies – have a substantial impact on us, our members and their clients. This includes the Scottish Legal Aid Board, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Registers of Scotland and others. As such, it is right that we focus on influencing those decisions where we can. When we do, it must be in a reasoned and impartial way.

This desire to influence is rooted in a commitment to the rule of law; to a fair and accessible justice system; and to the creation of new laws which are workable and easy to understand. This is essential for the profession. More importantly, it is crucial for the public and for the kind of fair and just society we all want to live in.

We are and will remain a proudly nonpartisan organisation which engages across the party-political divide here in Scotland and the UK. This will be particularly important in 2021 when Scotland chooses the 129 individuals who will sit as members of the Scottish Parliament for the next five years. It is an election which is likely to have a significant bearing on the country’s constitutional future.

The Law Society is fortunate to have access to a broad wealth of knowledge and expertise, both in our staff team and amongst our committee volunteers. As such, we are well placed to provide informed and well-evidenced input into government, parliament and the various public bodies responsible for the smooth administration of justice.

Given the challenges facing the profession currently and the need for a well-managed and sustained recovery, we have a wider interest in influencing other aspects of public policy decision making. Post-Brexit decisions around trade, immigration, security cooperation and market regulation, will all impact the legal sector we support. The difficult decisions being taken in response to COVID 19 will determine the scale and nature of the economic recovery to come.

Our interest is to ensure that jobs and the wider economic contribution of the legal sector is protected over the long-term. In an increasingly international market, this also means preserving and enhancing the competitiveness of the Scottish legal jurisdiction and solicitor firms.

Over the course of this two-year strategy, we want to ensure the broad range of legal services available to the public is maintained. That is particularly important in terms of legal aid, which offers a lifeline to many of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in our society. However, the pressures which existed before COVID 19 have only been intensified by the virus and the response to it. Without action and direct support, an access to justice crisis could easily emerge. We are clear that access to quality legal services and effective representation must be available to all who need it and not just a privileged few.

Our aim to influence extends to the technological transformation of our courts; a process we want to work with our judiciary and courts service to help shape. We also want to influence changes to the property market, the increasing use of alternative dispute resolution, and wider regulatory changes will all require the Law Society to keep making its voice heard. That voice needs to continue be backed up with sound arguments and compelling evidence.

We also understand the power of the profession as an influencing force in its own right. With a breadth of work and expertise, the powerful and respected voices throughout the profession need to be supported on legal, economic and social issues.

The Law Society will continue to play its part internationally too, building on the organisation’s long track record of taking an outward-looking and internationalist approach. The financial pressures which form the backdrop to this strategy will inevitably temper the scale of that activity. However, we will continue to engage colleagues from other jurisdictions, learning examples of best practice and using our expertise to influence internationally. Embracing new technology offers us a chance to do this differently and in a more cost-effective and environmentally responsible way.