From the President's desk: what should you expect from a President?

Law Society of Scotland President Patricia Thom reflects on what should be expected of a President, at the halfway point of her term 

I can’t believe that I am over halfway through my year as President. What’s it been like you may ask? Challenging, interesting, inspiring and satisfying. The challenges include chairing the Council meetings – how do you get 40 plus differing views to form into one unanimous decision – and negotiating legal aid with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

The interesting aspects include being asked to appoint a mediator to mediate on the contract terms between a Chinese firm and a Singapore firm ( that was one for the Law Society’s Professional Practice team, and did you know there is actually already a process and a fee for such a request). Certainly, the speakers at our Annual conference, and at the IBA conference in Toronto along with those being admitted as solicitor advocates and the admission ceremonies for all those amazing young people just beginning their careers as solicitors have been inspiring in many different ways. As to satisfying, I am not quite sure I am there yet.

It’s been a joy working with the Law Society and meeting our members, be it at CPD events or posh dinners, and I sincerely hope I have a few more months of all of that.

The Council recently formed a short-life working group to look at the eligibility criteria for President. It’s recommendation still needs to be approved, initially by the Council and thereafter by our members at an AGM if as we anticipate it will require an amendment to the constitution, but one of the things we looked at closely is what do we expect from a President. In other words, to be successful as a president we felt the person should be qualified to discharge the responsibilities of the role and have credibility as a senior member of the legal profession. Their personal qualities should include intelligence, integrity, wisdom, interpersonal skills and a familiarity with the issues we as solicitors need to deal with.  

I would like to think that those personal qualities extend to those sitting on the Council and representing their constituents and even those volunteering for committees. For my self, being involved initially as a Council member, subsequently sitting on committees and now as President has been tremendously rewarding and I would advocate to any of you giving any thought to putting yourselves forward.

How have we managed those other new beginnings I discussed in June? Certainly the newly revamped offices have been a success both with staff and visitors alike. Ben Kemp started as new CEO in August and seems to be engaging well with external and internal stakeholders. And while we do now have the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025, implementation is still at the very early stages awaiting the various commencement orders which we anticipate will begin in March 2026.

In the meantime, the Council is embarking on a Council Development Session on 30 January designed to bring  the Council and the Regulation Committee together to look at and understand the regulatory transformation required by the new legislation, looking at shaping the Council’s strategic direction for 2027 and looking at the Council’s composition and representation model.

All of this gives us lots of food for thought, and plenty more to be achieved in the second half of my presidency.