Leaving on a high

This is my final President’s column – how quickly the year passes. I was warned the time would fly by and encouraged to enjoy it. It is a great experience to represent your profession at home and abroad. The biggest limitation was my back pain, which I thought might halt my year in office if major surgery was needed. Thankfully it was not. The President’s job is inevitably transient with limited time to achieve all the things you set out to do, but I am confident that substantial progress has been made over the year, building on recent progress. Some, particularly CRO improvements are  already apparent; other aspects such as the effects of the new MNP rules will take time to flourish.

I would like to highlight some aspects of the year. “Property Matters”, this year’s annual conference, attracted more than 600 delegates and was a triumph. So successful indeed that it was recognised not only by the profession but also by the media. Making the front page of the Scotsman with a good news story, and with an editorial which recognised our work, is something I’m still coming to terms with. The conference was both a financial and feelgood success, and the runes augur well for next year’s conference, “Get Connected”, which will celebrate 50 years of this, the premier Scottish legal magazine.

Our improved governance model is bedding down well. I am very confident that the Audit Committee and President’s Committee are already working well, making sound decisions and adding value to the organisation.

The success of Deep Sagar and Roy Paterson in the Professional Practice Committee and the quality of the candidates interested in assisting the Society, has already encouraged further expansion of non-solicitor membership on our committees.

The Client Relations Office has made substantial progress and there are more improvements to come. Any model for complaints handling will now have to be measured against the current system, which is delivering and performing in a context of a massive growth in complaints in all areas of consumer service. Both the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman and the Scottish Consumer Council recognise that much of the increase can be put down to greater visibility of where and how to complain about a solicitor. The Society has rightly invested heavily, but we also rely significantly on the voluntary work of reporters and committee members. Any future model which requires meaningful payment will see a massive escalation in costs far beyond the projected £1.7 million which complaints handling is currently costing. Perhaps that’s something for the competition theorists to mull over.

On the competition front we have been professional in our dealings with the OFT and our Proportionality Review. We have accepted our legal advice and determined to withdraw the Table of Fees. The recognition by the OFT that the Master Policy does work in the public interest for consumers and firms in the Scottish legal marketplace was an endorsement of the value which the Master Policy delivers.

The year of regulatory fatigue became the year of consultation constipation. However it looks as though the long awaited consultations on Complaints Handling and the Strategic Review of Legal Aid will emerge shortly. Despite what some sections of the media might suggest, it is my impression that the profession is open minded on the issues which are likely to be addressed by the complaints consultation and may well conclude, to continue the medical allusions, that homeopathy doesn’t hit the spot. I do hope that the debate will engage the profession and workable solutions be achieved which will stand the test of time.

The consultation is of course linked with the research into legal services and the great Clementi debate. As the launch of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in cinemas reminds us, the answer to life, the universe and everything is, of course, 42. But I suspect that the question which I have asked many times this year – lawyers or providers of legal services? – may need a different and probably more expansive answer.

Space does not permit identification of all those who have given me such valuable support throughout the year. I am most grateful to them all, for they have made an enormous contribution to my year as your President.

Looking forward, I have every confidence that Caroline will add her own stamp to the presidency in the year to come. I wish her and Ruthven every success.

So farewell dear readers, which rather presupposes that some of you do read this. If I might paraphrase from a tour guide who famously said to his departing guests: “If you haven’t had too bad a time, I hope you will consider coming back next month!”