President's column

So… February 2021, progress? The health and social care key workers and over 70s in my family have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The supply and rollout remain headline news, with contract terms rarely so high profile on our news cycle. We await a response to priority consideration being given to court staff and solicitors essential to keep the justice system running. Progress.

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice spoke to our governing Council, with one member commenting: “He can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?” The regulations to increase legal aid fees across the board by 5% this year have been laid in the Scottish Parliament. Details of the resilience and traineeship funds should be out by the time this is published. Progress.

Attitudes, 40 years on

February is LGBT+ History month. The first day of this month was the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of sexual intercourse between consenting adult men in private in Scotland. 1 February 1981 is a “simple” date in history for two generations of young gay men who have grown up able to live their lives in Scotland without fear of criminalisation for who they love. However, it is dark-shadowed life experience for two generations of adult gay men who grew up in a time pre-1981, in the shadow of criminality, contributing to society but unable to live their lives openly in a society whose laws valued and respected them. The Society’s head of Education wrote about this at the start of February.

As a lesbian I was of no interest to the legislators, but was still told in the 1990s, “You can’t be gay. Your life will be over”, and the recipient of a selection of other derogatory, prejudicial and deliberately hateful remarks as an attempt to achieve a perception of conformity. I lived a different dark-shadowed life experience for years. Just a couple of years ago I received an email from someone I considered a friend and colleague, who compared sexuality with political affiliation... as a choice.

Today many members of the LGBT+ community, including in our profession, continue to live lives less than their whole, due to unfounded accusations of predatory behaviour, the continued existence of extreme and homophobic, bi-phobic and transphobic publicly expressed views, the view of many with no experience of prejudice or hate for their gender, sexuality or race that there isn’t a problem, and the fact that there are, perhaps not surprisingly given the preceding, a lack of identifiable role models.

I am the fifth female president of the Law Society of Scotland in its 71-year history. I am the first open member of the LGBT+ community elected by the governing Council to be President and leader of the Scottish solicitor profession. Progress.

Much still to do

There is #MuchStillToDo to get out of the grip of the global pandemic as positively as possible, never forgetting the horror of loss of life, loss of business and limitation of opportunity for many. To do it positively we must learn from what has worked well before and during the pandemic to maximise the future opportunity and preparedness. Lawscot Wellbeing has lots of useful information to support your mental wellbeing during the pandemic.

There is #MuchStillToDo on #LegalAid, but it’s a start that wasn’t even close to the line a year ago.

There is #MuchStillToDo on #Inclusion. In the past 40 years, and particularly the past 10, much progress has been made, and it will continue, to ensure the profession reflects the society that it serves.

Progress, with #MuchStillToDo