Smart bows out at AGM

“Last year, on coming into office as the President, I produced a manifesto, one of the points of which was my stated intention to raise the media profile of the Law Society of Scotland. In that, at least, I can claim, without exaggeration, to have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

Thus did Ian Smart begin his final speech as President, in typical self-deprecatory fashion, in his address to this year’s AGM.

The President went on to say that “A professional body that does not engage with its membership is a professional body not worthy of the name.” In the past 12 months the Society had hosted countless events, covering managing partners of the biggest firms; sole practitioners; the In-house Lawyers Group; the High Street Conferences; numerous faculty visits and other local initiatives, “all aimed at both teaching and listening but also at proving that, yes, while we appreciate that we are an increasingly diverse profession, we are still members of one profession and we can all gain value from that one profession’s national representative body”.

Among the work carried out over the past year, Smart highlighted the representation work done by the Update, Professional Practice and Law Reform teams; the education and training changes and the Registered Paralegal Scheme; the modernisation of the Society’s constitution; and the regulatory and financial compliance work which ensured that membership of the Society was “the essential gateway to so much that is essential to all of our financial wellbeing”.

After previewing the ABS debate that was to follow (see p10), he paid particular tribute to Chief Executive Lorna Jack, who “has transformed the public face of the Society and the terms of our engagement with the profession, with the Government and with wider civic society... We are exceptionally fortunate to have her in this major role at this time of unprecedented change”.

Thanking members for the opportunity to serve as President, he concluded: “For all the policy challenges and the occasional rantings on the blogosphere, I would do it again in a minute. Like Cincinnatus, I now intend to return if not to my plough then at least to my pink forms.”

More from the AGM

Presenting his first report as treasurer, David McClements said the Society had an operating surplus of £1,089,000 in the year to October 2009.

Income was down by £277,000 to £9,075,000, and expenditure by £146,000 to £7,977,000. A voluntary redundancy scheme had been completed and a pay freeze imposed. An increase in reserves had permitted the £100 cut in the practising certificate fee. The Society’s cashflow position had improved.

The effects of the recession continued to have a negative impact on sources of income, but his aim was to take forward a budget for next year “which will deliver both effective regulation but at the same time strong representation and support for members without further increasing the practising certificate fee”. He added: “In financial terms in the year to 31 October 2009 the Society has consolidated its financial position to enable it to better and more effectively fulfil its functions and to operate in a more open and transparent fashion.”

Reporting on the Guarantee Fund, Alistair Morris said that events had demonstrated the ongoing risks to which the fund was exposed and why it was necessary to build up reserves; fortunately the largest set of claims had almost all been met from other funds. If all claims intimated had been paid, £2 million of reserves would have been used. The financial compliance teams had been reorganised and a more risk based approach taken to inspection scheduling and field work.

The Scottish Solicitors Benevolent Fund convener, Craig Bennet said his fund had had a “mixed” year, with donations hit by the downturn although the balance in hand had risen.

He again appealed to members to make more use of the Tod Endowment, which supports stressed solicitors to take short holidays in Scotland.