All change at ILG

The role of the in-house lawyer is more important now than it has ever been, Law Society of Scotland vice president Bruce Beveridge told the In-house Lawyers Group annual conference on 26 October.

Himself a career in-house lawyer to date, Beveridge said that what made in-house lawyers different going into an organisation was that their legal ability was taken as a given – what mattered was what they added to the organisation, for example through risk management, or mentoring others.

Referring to the challenges posed by the economy and the period of unprecedented change currently facing the legal profession, the vice president said he was proud that all solicitors were members of the one profession.

The reasons we became lawyers were all similar – not to make money but to help people, whether corporations, individuals or families. Inside an organisation, lawyers will act as its social conscience with their focus on compliance.

Beveridge warned of the risk of developing a two tier legal structure, separating compliance from the rest. It was dangerous, he continued, because compliance work was critical, helping to improve business processes – it must be mainstream and not separate.

On economic challenges, he commented that it was fascinating how the merger picture was evolving with private firms. In-house teams did not have the same opportunity, but had to live with the threat of headcount reductions as support budgets were often the first to go. “It is now more important than ever that in-house teams know how they are valued by their organisations,” he claimed. “Make sure you know what they think of your team and the services it provides. You are in the unique position of knowing your business inside out, and you should leverage that.”

Expert guidance

This year’s conference, held in the conference suite at Murrayfield Stadium, was different in that there was no keynote speaker, but additional sessions presented by the law firm sponsors, now numbering seven: Dundas & Wilson, Pinsent Masons, DLA Piper, Burness, Brodies, Shepherd & Wedderburn and Tods Murray. Topics ranged from risk management and mitigation, through knowledge management and mentoring, social media, improved business processes, financial services regulation and public service delivery models, to legal issues relating to the independence referendum.

New blood

However, the event, and certainly the evening dinner that followed, may well be best remembered for the longserving ILG chair and vice chair, Janet Hood and Colin Anderson, both taking their final bow. With 40 years’ service between them (Hood has been involved with the group – known initially as the Public Service & Commerce Group – since 1996, and Anderson since 1988), it was an understandably emotional occasion, and many tributes were paid and parting gifts given by those with whom they have worked, in Scotland and elsewhere, over the years.

Neither Lynda Towers (solicitor to the Scottish Parliament), who takes over as chair, nor Sara Scott (senior upstream risk manager at RBS Group), the new vice chair, will want to be reminded again what a hard act they have to follow, but they take over an In-house Lawyers Group now more integrated with the Law Society of Scotland, in good heart and for which, as Beveridge put it, the challenge is to leverage to best effect the talents of its increasingly broad membership.