Early highlights as president

Susan Murray presents her very first president update as she takes up the reins on core issues, attends events and speaks on behalf of the Society and its members.

Welcome to my first Journal column as President of the Law Society of Scotland.

I am looking forward to writing to you regularly about what the Law Society is doing on behalf of its members, and reflecting on my experiences to date and over the coming year.

I want to begin by saying how grateful I am to the people who have supported me in my involvement with the Society up to this point. They have given me a truly fantastic opportunity to represent members and our profession as a whole. My thanks go to Edinburgh members who know me and who elected me to Council in 2017 – and again in 2020 – and fellow Council members who elected me President. My thanks also go to my colleagues in the Society for all of the support that I will be receiving from them this year – absolutely invaluable.

I’ve been surprised and pleased by the amount of interest and advice that the content of my first column has generated from those around me. I am taking that to mean that members want to know what the Law Society and the Office Bearer team are doing for members. We are equally keen to show you what value the Society delivers for all members of our profession. I intend to build on that interest over the coming year.

Now that the Journal is completely online we are beginning to get feedback on that change. So please keep that coming. We also now receive more sophisticated ‘reading hits’ stats, which will drive developments. I want to give you information and feedback that makes you want to catch the next ‘episode’ of this column.

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve been given lots of wisdom from colleagues about writing the column, and the three pieces that I will run with are: be yourself, let members get to know you, and explain what you have been doing. That all sounds simple enough – and I will be doing all of that not only in writing to you every month but much more enjoyably in meeting you. I hope to meet and speak to very many of you this year, whether that be in members’ meetings around the country, at social gatherings throughout the year or at training events. I still need to keep my CPD hours up this year! But, in all of this, I want to make sure that I explain why we in the Law Society do what we do, how it supports members and how it improves the wider perception of our profession in Scotland and beyond.

On the getting to know you front, I studied in Edinburgh and was admitted as a solicitor in 1984. I have worked my whole career as a professional negligence litigator, covering mainly medical negligence cases in the Court of Session, but also building contracts disputes and lately many years’ worth of Public Inquiries, including the recently concluded UK Infected Blood Inquiry. Acting on behalf of NHS Health Boards, operating in the courts and working around public and governmental sectors, I have covered the length and breadth of Scotland. But as well as looking back over my own involvement in the profession, I also have a vested interest in its future. I have three children who studied law at The University of Aberdeen, giving me some personal experience of not only how our profession is accessed and the difficulties that can be faced but also what it takes to retain solicitors in the profession for the whole of their careers.

So – to what I have been doing in my first few weeks in the role. There have already been some early highlights for me in terms of attending events, speaking on behalf of the Society and taking up the reins on the current big issues, which are Legal Services Regulation and the current impasse around funding of criminal and civil legal aid in Scotland.

Shortly after being installed, our CEO, Diane McGiffen, and I attended the 17^th Annual Bar Leaders’ Conference, at which I was invited to join a panel session entitled ‘IBA – Independent regulation of legal services under the microscope’ and speak about our experiences here in Scotland. The presidents of four countries’ law societies were involved, including South Africa, New Zealand, British Columbia, Canada and Scotland. We each explained our own lengthy legislative journeys, some of which have been completed, and some, like ours, are ongoing. It’s not the first time it’s been said in this column, but other countries around the world do share our issues. It was good to see the Scottish legal profession being seen on centre stage among our international colleagues. The conference ended with us taking part as an International Bar Association (IBA) member and voting on applications to join the organisation, made by several countries around the world including by the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association in Exile. It was clear how important membership of the IBA is regarded, especially by those facing real political hardships and even governmental persecution. This conference very much put world politics into a legal context.

Early last month I also had my second meeting with the Scottish Minister for Victims and Community Safety, during which we discussed at length the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill and the lack of progress on legal aid. Whereas the former topic is progressing, although now more slowly than we had hoped due to political/personnel changes in Scotland and the wider UK, I think that the legal aid situation will require renewed work by both the Society and its members to unlock. That work has already started, and I will be reporting further as it progresses.

Finally this month, I want to focus on the value we provide for members around training. I recently attended the Society’s In-house Annual Conference, which had a record turnout this year, and I know that last month’s Legal Tech Conference has also proved very popular. Both were free for members to attend, offering invaluable insights and verifiable CPD. July is generally a quieter month for events but the Society is still hosting a range of seminars on topics including intellectual property and Powers of Attorney, in addition to on-demand modules related to risk management, covering regulatory compliance and the risk of cyber-attack. Our own Beth Anderson, Head of Member Engagement, has told me that there are now a number of free training seminars directed towards our in-house community of solicitors that are available to book. I hope that you take a look and find something that interests you this coming month.

Please do get in touch with any feedback on my column. I am keen to hear from members and to be accessible during my entire term of office.