Legal News June 2016

THE MAGAZINE OF THE CONFEDERATION OF THE SOUTH WALES LAW SOCIETIES

LEGAL

NEWS

JUNE 2016

Pimms by the river 15th july 2016 - See page 5 Kindly sponsored by:

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LEGAL NEWS

CONTENTS Editorial Board Richard Fisher - Editor Michael Walters - Secretary Johnathan Hine David Dixon

Editorial copy to Richard Fisher Charles Crookes 51 The Parade Cardiff CF24 3AB Tel: 029 2049 1271 Fax: 029 2047 1211 DX 33025 Cardiff 1 E-mail rfisher@ccj-law.co.uk

CONFEDERATION OF SOUTH WALES LS

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT

cardiff & district LS

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president’s letter

Monmouthshire Incorporated LS

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Monmouthshire President’s letter

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IN PICTURES

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CARDIFF & DISTRICT ANNUAL DINNER 2016

Managing Editor Dawn Pardoe

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Paul Blyth

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Advertising Sales Emma Cox Tel: 01905 727907 Email: emma@pw-media.co.uk

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Title Repair Indemnity Insurance

Stephens & George The articles published in Legal News

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represent the views of the contributor and are not necessarily the official views of the Confederation of South Wales Law

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THE SOLICITORS’ PROFESSION IN WALES 1994 - 2015

Societies, Cardiff & District Law Society, or of the Editorial Board. The magazine or members of the Editorial Board are in no way liable for such opinions. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that

CHANCERY LANE

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the latest news from chancery lane

the contents of this issue are accurate, we cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies or late changes. No article,

FEATURE

advertisement or graphic, in whole or in print, may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers.

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hello professional development LEGAL NEWS

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CONFEDERATION OF SOUTH WALES LAW SOCIETIES

PRESIDENT’S REPORT - JUNE 2016 Presidential duties have suddenly become more extensive! Like the natural world emerging from the slumber of winter, so the arrival of spring seems to have awakened the legal world as well.

I attended recently the Presidents’ and Secretaries’ conference at the Law Society in London. This is the first time I have attended this event, in the hallowed halls of our august representative body. The event was an eye-opener for a variety or reasons.

Now I will be the first to confess that I am not a regular visitor to Chancery Lane. There are many reasons for this, but I suspect that the principle one is that it is in London. Somewhat distant if one simply wants to pop in for coffee or a light lunch! Add the point that the majority of my work is centred in the South West/South Wales area and the reason for, or opportunities to, visit this establishment diminish rapidly. I may be wrong, but I think that the last time I was actually in the Law Society building was at my admission ceremony. That was about 25 years ago! In short, I have not exactly darkened its doors regularly. It was a pleasant distraction therefore to visit our alma mater after so long an absence, even if it was covered in hoardings and undergoing restoration work.

The nature of the conference is that it is spread over 2 half days, Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

I suppose that this allows those travelling from further afield time to get to London in the morning.

On reflection, this is no bad thing.

It allowed me a relaxed journey up without having an obscenely early start. The hotel I had booked (quite by chance and a stroke of luck) was both comfortable and within a 60 second walk of Chancery Lane. I did look for the closest I could find with an eye on the journey back after dinner on the Friday night. After all, I was in the company of some seasoned campaigners and my visions of getting stranded in the middle of London in the early hours of Saturday morning, somewhat the worse for wear, led me to play safe!

The conference itself was very well 4

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organised and run. The “light lunch” on arrival on the Friday was only surpassed by the dinner on the Friday evening. I should make particular mention of one of the break-out sessions on the Friday, led by none other than our own Clive Thomas, President of Monmouthshire Law Society. I duly attended this session, partly to support Clive and partly out of a genuine interest for his subject of obtaining sponsorship. It was a well organised and thought provoking session. My congratulations to Clive on his presentation.

Throughout the event we were kept well refreshed, even if the “wine and beer tasting” on the Friday evening left a little to be desired as regards volume of the tasting liquors. Many a muttering was to be heard from the Welsh contingent on the volume, or lack of it, on the beer front. “Bring on the SA!” “Call that a pint?” and “Can’t I just have the bottle?” were among the muttered comments from the veterans of a Cardiff Friday evening out present, resplendent in their black tie. The offerings were interesting; there was just not enough of it to get a tidy taste!

Having said all that, we were kept well watered during dinner. Thus I was not disappointed to retire at midnight with thoughts of the following day’s excitement to come!

The Saturday proved somewhat different. The highlight had to be the “debate” (aka confrontation) on the proposed governance changes at the Law Society. This is an area that was new to me. Clearly, from the spectacle that I observed, there is both strong and passionate feeling about these proposals. Whilst I can see the potential threat to the representative nature of Council inherent in the proposals, it was slightly bemusing and therefore disappointing, that such venom had to be exchanged between the protagonists. A civil healthy debate is surely what is LEGAL NEWS

required here? My lasting reaction to what I observed was that change, in any form and in any body, is never easy!

I confess to leaving before the final closing session of the event. By 12.30pm on the Saturday I felt I had drunk my fill of shop talk for the week. It was Saturday now, after all.

I had plotted to catch the 1.30pm from Paddington, to return home at a respectable 4.30pm or so just in time for the bbq promised by my wife and a spot of R & R. However, I had not bargained with TFL and the Tube! It seemed to me that TFL had conspired to make my journey from Temple to Paddington as difficult as possible, closing lines, not stopping at stations and making a journey that normally required no changes, necessitate 3 and take over an hour!

I should have walked, save that I was carrying a heavy bag. I eschewed a taxi. The Confederation cannot afford such luxuries in addition to the cost of attending the event! Thus it was that I missed the 1.30pm train by 5 minutes, spent 50 minutes sitting on Paddington station and caught the 2.30pm (which I had initially intended to catch in my more idealistic frame of mind prior to the event), arriving home shortly before 6pm. Happily, the weather was warm and sunny on my return, the beer was cold and the bbq lit! In all an interesting, if somewhat eventful, trip to Chancery Lane.

As I write this letter, the Pontypridd and Rhondda Law Society dinner is rapidly approaching at the Park Plaza hotel in Cardiff on 13th May. I have been invited and was delighted to be able to accept and support one of our local societies. If last year’s event is anything to go by, the dinner will be another great success.

Future events are already in the diary. Monmouthshire Law Society hosts its dinner at the Celtic Manor resort on 24th June. Last year’s

event was an outstanding success, perhaps in part as it followed the Local Law Societies Conference that Monmouthshire hosted. However, I am sure this year will be equally well attended. For those members within the Monmouthshire Law Society area, as well as those further afield, I urge you to attend. You will not regret it!

Finally, the Confederation has its own annual event, this year on 15th July. Given the multiplicity of formal dinners, we have decided to hark back to a formula we used several years ago. We are thus returning to Llandaff Rowing Club in Cardiff, for a more relaxed and informal summer party on the banks of the river.

Tickets are very reasonably priced but the capacity of the venue is limited. I urge you to book early as the event will sell out early! I look forward to seeing you there.

The weather is improving, the sun is out as I am writing this piece and the spring has truly sprung. In this spirit of renewal and optimism I have refrained from any invective directed at central government, the SRA or any of the myriad of others representing a threat to our profession, for threatened we remain. More of that in future editions! I’m sure you’d miss it if I didn’t after all! n Jonathan Hine JonathanH@jacklyndawson.co.uk

Pimms By The River 15th July 2016 from 7:30pm Dress: Smart casual

To reserve your tickets, at ÂŁ25 each, please complete your details below and send with payment to: Michael Walters, 34 Ty Fry Gardens, Cardiff CF3 3NQ (DX Cardiff 33029) Email: michaelwalters1@hotmail.co.uk Tel: 02920 453334

Supporting

CARDIFF AND DISTRICT LAW SOCIETY

PRESIDENT’S LETTER Although the heading for this column is true as I write this piece, it will no longer be true when you read it. On Wednesday 25 May, my term as president of Cardiff and District law society will expire and Paul Hopkins of Geldards will take charge. The society will be in good hands under Paul’s leadership and he, Rachelle Sellek and Sarah Grace will form a strong triumvirate to lead the society into the future.

The end of my presidential year is a bittersweet moment.

Even though there isn’t a general election of members to vote for the president, it is a great honour to serve as the society’s president. I am grateful to everyone who has supported me, not just this year but throughout my tenure as Law Society council member for South Wales and during the period when I chaired the Confederation of South Wales law societies before that. But there are some aspects of presidential life I won’t miss. Much as I like writing articles for Legal News (and I’m submitting three articles to this issue), it will be a relief not to have to comment on current legal developments from the point of view of this society and, separately, to report from Chancery Lane. I used to find it hard to write my Chancery Lane news feature for every issue of Legal News, so it has been doubly difficult this year when I’ve been expected (and managed) to write two articles for each issue, without repeating myself.

Lord Acton observed that power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I am only human, so probably am not immune to such corruption, though I have resisted the temptation to declare myself president of the society for life!

Fortunately, the office of Cardiff and District law society president has no power so I have not been corrupted.

This is because our society’s able and efficient administrator, Michael Walters, possesses and exercises all of the society’s power. Michael does a tremendous amount of work for the society and is a man of many talents who dreams up schemes for increasing our membership, nurturing and expanding the membership benefits, devising courses to run and 6

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raising the profile of the society. He is also the most idiosyncratic minute taker I have ever encountered. Thanks for all your hard work, Michael.

a note. I am so glad I asked him and that he came to speak to us. I hope he enjoyed the evening. He made a lot of friends.

The big event I must report on is the annual dinner on 22 April. I thought it was a big success, though I expect all presidents say that. We managed to attract 269 diners, which is more than for many years and I thought the atmosphere was excellent and very supportive. I am so grateful to everyone who came to the dinner and I hope you enjoyed it.

I was delighted to be able to hand the Simon Mumford Memorial Award to Fran Edwards, who was a worthy and popular winner. Fran’s achievement in becoming president of CILEx and leading it with distinction during a year when Chris Grayling was Lord Chancellor and CILEx’s highly regarded chief executive retired is immense.

She fully deserved recognition from her friends and peers in South Wales for all she has done.

I managed to get through my speech without embarrassing myself too much and without telling a single joke!

I thought if I told any jokes they would either not be funny, or they would offend someone which I didn’t want to do on this occasion. So I contented myself by mentioning in the speech as many titles of Beatles songs as I could (it turned out to be 25 of them) without distorting it to accommodate them. I should have known better. Since the dinner scarcely a day has gone by without someone wishing me “good morning! good morning!” or telling me to let it be when I’ve objected to something. I was worried that people might think the idea a bit naff but it seemed to amuse a fair number of people and I feel fine about it now it’s done and dusted.

Our speaker was Keir Starmer. I had the privilege of sitting next to him during dinner. What an interesting and good man he is. I was a bit nervous about giving the speech during the gap between the first and second courses, but he kept chatting to me during the first course so I had no time to get nervous before I had to rise to my feet and speak. That was very thoughtful and considerate. He spoke well, with humour and without LEGAL NEWS

Lowri Morgan told me to enjoy the evening and I did. I bought a table for friends and it was good to see friends from university who stayed overnight in Cardiff, and others like Allen Oliver, who I hadn’t seen for a couple of years and Professor Thomas Watkin.

One of my former partners from the days when I practised in Newport and three colleagues from the Law Society council were there too, including Robert Bourns, the vice president, who sat on the top table. Robert is a graduate of University College Cardiff and it is always good to see him back in Cardiff. And the top table guests were great too. It was after 2 am when I left the Vanilla Club and plenty of people were still partying then.

None of this could have happened without the immense work put in by Richard Fisher. My involvement in the arrangements was limited to inviting a couple of people, choosing (and tasting) the meal), e-mailing a few people to persuade them to come, write the speech and do what I had to do on the day. That is a tiny amount compared to what Richard (and Michael) did. I shudder to think how many hours he spends on these dinners every year.

Thank you Richard for the remarkable work you do, both for our society and for the Confederation.

I had plans for my presidential year but none of them came to fruition, largely because I had very little time to work on them. I had hoped to attract speakers for a series of meetings on issues of current importance but in the end only one speaker, Julie Brannan, came for a meeting on the SRA’s proposals for the Solicitors’ Qualifying Examination.

Catherine Dixon, the Law Society’s chief executive visited Cardiff too, but oddly she didn’t want to meet the local profession, which had been the purpose of inviting her. Most disappointing was my failure to launch a Cardiff and District law society annual lecture. I approached Shami Chakrabarti but the timing was inconvenient as she was about to resign as director of Liberty and then I became too busy at work so abandoned the plan. But it remains a god idea and I hope that sometime in the future the society will inaugurate such a lecture.

That is the main disappointment of the year. But what I’ll remember about this year is the tremendous goodwill I felt from the profession, particularly at the dinner, and attending the opening of the legal year service at Llandaff Cathedral where I mixed for a short time with the great and the good of the legal world in Wales. I’ll conclude by thanking the members of the society’s council for all their hard work and for being a great bunch of people to work with, the Law Society’s Wales office for their support and accommodation and thanking all of you for the opportunity to have been your president. n David Dixon DixonD@cardiff.ac.uk @saldixie

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Monmouthshire Incorporated Law Society

monmouthshire President’s letter There is no let up for us lawyers! We still seem to be in the centre of the Government’s crosshairs and this was highlighted at the various conferences I have been attending. help prevent fraud. He also said that Ethelbert the King of Kent recognised the right to payment for bodily injury in the 10th Century so why doesn’t the MOJ in the 21st century! APIL emphasised how important it is that we personal injury lawyers fight back and try to influence our local MPs and get positive stories out in the press about how we use our expertise to make a real difference to people and help to repair shattered lives.

As a personal injury practitioner, I attended the APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) conference in Birmingham, which contained a number of lively debates as it is a very challenging time for practitioners in this sector and more importantly for innocent accident victims. The theme of this conference was ‘Winning hearts and minds’ to show the public, MPs, press and the judiciary that personal injury lawyers fill a genuinely important and holistic role. Lord Faulks, QC, the Minister of State for Justice spoke and confirmed that the Government plans to plough ahead with their reforms to personal injury claims. He referred to lower value claims as “unnecessary”, much to the annoyance of the audience.

He gave the impression that those suffering with those often painful and debilitating injuries should not be allowed to claim damages for their pain and suffering at all. The new APIL President, Neil Sugarman, branded the Government’s plans as ‘baseless’ and ‘frustrating’ and pointed out that their own figures show us that whiplash claims are falling and a whole raft of reforms have already been introduced to reduce costs and 8

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I also attended the recent Presidents and Secretaries Conference at Chancery Lane, for the first time as a speaker, as I jointly presented a seminar on sponsorship for local law societies. Jonathan Smithers, The President of the Law Society gave the opening address and said that we must preserve legal professional privilege, access to justice and the rule of law. Fifty five different local law societies were represented and I picked up some very useful information and good practice from those I met. More of a concern is the ongoing battle to regulate the legal sector. This was discussed in detail and my view is that the Law Society should regulate solicitors’ standards and govern entry into the profession.

There was a strong message from the Society; Catherine Dixon, the CEO, said you should only be able to call yourself a lawyer if you are one - and that has to be right. Robert Bourns, the Vice President gave the positive message that solicitors are a vibrant and strong profession the bedrock of local communities. It is time for us to stand up for our profession as no one else will do it for us. Congratulations to Rhys Jones of Law Society Wales for his efforts in organising such an excellent conference ….and also for completing the London Marathon last month!

I was very pleased to be invited to LEGAL NEWS

the Cardiff and District Law Society Annual dinner at City Hall in Cardiff as an honoured guest. Their president, David Dixon, spoke with great aplomb, setting the perfect tone. The guest speaker Sir Keir Starmer, also gave a very interesting and amusing speech.

A well deserved pat on the back to Richard Fisher, for organising such a splendid event.

We held our inaugural Managing Partners Forum at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport on the 10th May, kindly sponsored by JLT, specialist solicitor’s professional indemnity insurance brokers. It was a great success and attracted very good numbers. We had three excellent speakers. Simon Seaton of Lexsure spoke about “the Future of UK Legal Practice – A Technology Perspective” he gave common sense advice on the likely advances in technology in the legal sector over the next 5 years. He felt that despite the stories in the press about AI and online dispute resolution, no huge change is likely in the next 5 years as the technology within the profession will not have reached that stage, but that compliance is an area where we would see the benefits of technology.

He is also suggested firms may wish to consider clubbing together to create their bespoke software at a fraction of the price of going it alone. James Frost of JLT gave us a “Professional Indemnity Insurance Update”, with really interesting insight into how insurers view our applications and the best way to approach them to show our firms in their best light. Viv Williams, CEO of Symphony Legal was our final speaker on “What do the next 12 months have in store for the legal profession?”. Viv, as ever, gave a very thought provoking talk on what we need to do as firms to get ahead of the curve in particular focussing on pricing and being as accessible

as possible to clients and also how we convert enquiries into business. It generated plenty of lively debate and ideas sharing and reminded me of the importance of local law societies in providing a forum for this to happen.

We are planning to hold another Partners Forum in September.

I am also delighted to welcome two great new sponsors Acorn Legal Recruitment and 9 Park Place. Acorn are already a leading recruitment company but have just launched an exciting new legal recruitment division, and we are looking forward to working closely with them. 9 Park Place are a leading barristers chambers based in Cardiff and we intend running seminars for our members in association with them.

We will be sending out further details shortly.

I am delighted that we have secured Eddie Butler, journalist, sports commentator, and former Welsh rugby union player, and Jonathan Smithers, President of the Law Society of England and Wales, as our speakers at the Monmouthshire Law Society Ball. There will be plenty of fun and entertainment and music to end the evening. The Ball is on Friday 24th June 2016 at the Augusta Suite (The Lodge) the Celtic Manor Resort 7pm – 1am Black Tie / Evening Gown. There are still tickets available - Single tickets £40 and tables of ten £400. Contact sarah@monlawsoc. co.uk to reserve your tickets or if you would like to join our Society. So please take advantage of our new corporate rates and new category of “Associate Member”. n Clive Thomas President President of Monmouthshire Incorporated Law Society clive.thomas@watkinsandgunn.co.uk

Cardiff & District Law Society proudly presents

Managing Partners’ and Directors’ Lunch Wednesday 29th June 2016 at 12.30noon At Geldards LLP, Dumfries House, Dumfries Place, Cardiff CF10 3ZF Cardiff & District Law Society is pleased to invite Managing Partners, Senior Partners, Directors and/or equivalent ‘decision makers’ from legal practices within Cardiff & District to attend a networking lunch hosted by the Society at the offices of Geldards LLP to share ideas and experiences and discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the profession Attendance is FREE! Please e-mail Paul Hopkins at paul.hopkins@geldards.com for further information and/or to reserve a place.

Please note that places are limited, so book now to avoid disappointment!

This event is kindly sponsored by:

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APRIL 2015

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CARDIFF & DISTRICT ANNUAL DINNER 2016 THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR SPONSORS...

Phoenix Legal Services

...and thanks ALSO to all those present, and to BAR 44, Lloyds bank, legal network wales and jonathan arteR for donating prizes, resulting in a magnificent sum of £1,130 being raised for tenovus

Tenovus ‘Sing With Us’ Choir

Emma Waddingham

Simon Mumford Memorial Award - Frances Edwards

AON

Lloyds Bank

Yolk

Keir Starmer QC MP

Phoenix Legal Services

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FEATURE

Title Repair Indemnity Insurance: an opportunity or putting your firm at risk?

Conveyancing remains an art not a science. Even with registered title, sometimes title defects remain intractable or are uneconomic to resolve. The advent of title repair indemnity insurance in the early 1980’s appears to provide a swift resolution to problems. Enabling the early completion which clients crave, and an additional legal fee for the firm in recompense for the time and professional services expended in obtaining the correct policy. is regulated by the SRA/ CLC, is not authorised by the FCA, and details of the complaints process and redress procedures • Providing policies only as an incidental and complementary part of conveyancing, not as a ‘standalone’ product or service

So far so good. Except that the provision of a title repair policy is an insurance mediation activity.

Insurance mediation activities are financial services. Financial services are regulated by the FCA, and so to avoid potentially committing a criminal offence, it is a very good idea to satisfy the requirements of your regulator as Designated Professional Body. For solicitors this means the Financial Services (Scope) Rules 2001 and the Financial Services (Conduct of Business) Rules 2001 with special reference to Appendix 1.

For licensed conveyancers reference must be made to the Acting as Insurance Intermediaries Guidance and Code.

For firms conducting conveyancing who wish to supply title repair indemnity policies, this means in addition to sending out your standard client care letters: • Registering the firm on the Exempt Professional Firms (EPF) Register and appointing an Insurance Mediation Officer whose details are known to the FCA • Confirming to the client: the firm 12

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• Accounting to the client for commissions received. There is no de minimis amount, and a standard term of business to retain commissions is not acceptable • Supplying to the client by durable medium the Rule 3.3 Conduct of Business Rules statement/ CLC Intermediaries Code para 32.8 equivalent • Complying with the requirements of Conduct of Business Rules Appendix 1/ CLC Intermediaries Code equivalent • Retaining records for six years of client instructions and commissions accounted for To comply with Appendix 1/ CLC Intermediaries Code, the firm must in a clear, fair and not misleading way, explain to the client how this policy meets their needs and demands.

The basis on which this policy is recommended, and whether or not a fair analysis of the options available on the market has been made. Disclosure of any contractual obligations between the firm and the insurance provider, of which the client can request further details. The CLC LEGAL NEWS

takes a refreshingly pragmatic view, acknowledging that for title repair indemnity insurance, there are a limited number of providers, and that a fair market analysis will in reality be a limited number or even a single insurance company. Here disclosure must be made to the client whether the firm/ insurance company has a 10% capital/ voting rights, stake in the other.

If you are supplying title repair indemnity policies, and your letters to clients do not satisfy the above requirements, you run the risk of a regulatory sanction or something worse. However, the risk to a conveyancing firm does not end there.

It will be a requirement of the insurer that clients are informed by the firm about the limitations and conditions which apply to the specific policy which has been obtained. Clients cannot be left to simply assume what is, or is not, covered by the policy in terms of time (duration of cover) and money (limits on financial indemnity).

Nor that disclosure of the existence of the policy to a third party may void the cover. Clients often take policy names at face value. That a building regulation indemnity policy would cover the replacement costs of a water heater boiler which no longer met minimum building regulation standards and needed to be replaced, being but only one real example.

Whether or not customer complaints are justified, they nevertheless take time and money to resolve. A failure to provide basic information in simple

language about what the legal terms in an insurance contract mean, which ought to have been obvious to the lawyer who supplied the policy, but not to a lay person, takes no little justification on the part of the conveyancer.

If each time you provide a policy to cover: lost restrictive covenants, missing easements, a flying freehold, good leasehold title, absent landlord, missing building regulations or planning permission, you are not clearly explaining to the client: Why do I need this policy? What cover does this policy provide? What are the limitations of the policy? You may be inviting a complaint from a misled client, or even worse a claim where a policy has been avoided by the actions of the client who had not been told what they must not do.

If your title repair indemnity insurance letters are not specific to the policies you sell, would welcome a review, or even do not exist and desperately need drafting, CPM21 can help.

Call us today to make a regulatory compliance issue go away, leaving you free to hit those completion day deadlines. n Tom Horrocks Associate Consultant cpm21

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FEATURE

THE SOLICITORS’ PROFESSION IN WALES 1994 - 2015 The purpose of this article is to provide readers with a snapshot of the current state of the profession in Wales. This is a timely exercise given the government’s intention of further liberalising the legal services sector in order to encourage competition (particularly from non-lawyer owned ABSs) and to drive down cost.

Most of the statistics in this paper

The

come from the Law Society’s Annual

contracts registered in any one year

highest

number

of

training

Statistical Reports (ASR).

in Wales was 187 in 1996/97 and 2006/07. In 2007/08 182 training

The size of the profession in Wales

contracts were registered in Wales.

Graph 1 shows the size of the profession

In 2014/15 the number had fallen to

in Wales over the past 20 years. The

132 - a fall of 27.5% in 7 years.

blue line shows that in most years the number of solicitors with practising

Profile of solicitors firms with head office in Wales 2004-2015

The ASR provides details of the number of solicitors who qualify annually, but

certificates increases, though it fell from 3,835 to 3,697 between 2012

number of practising solicitors rises

of fee-earners, so it is not necessarily

they do not provide regional or national

and 2015. That’s a fall of 3.6%. By

and falls while in England and Wales

a reliable indication of the size of the

breakdowns

contrast, the number of PCs issued in

as a whole the picture until 2013 was

business but it’s the best information

admitted solicitors practise. The number

England rose from 124,943 in 2012 to

of a continuously growing profession.

the Law Society has gathered. These

of admissions for the year 2014/2015

129,670 in 2015 - a rise of 2.35%.

Since 1960 the number of solicitors

tables show that the number of firms

was 6,077, which is 10% fewer than

with practising certificates in England

based in Wales grew until 2010 but it

in 2012/2013 and a whopping fall of

The pink line shows the number of

and Wales has grown by an average of

has since fallen in 4 of the last 5 years,

2,403 from the highest total number of

admitted staff who work in private

2,000 per year and in only 3 of those

by 19%. By contrast, 8,977 solicitors’

admissions in 2009/2010.

practice in Wales. This number also fell,

55 years has the number fallen. In

firms had their headquarters in England

by 5.3%, from 2,951 in 2012 to 2,794

contrast, the number of solicitors with

in 2015, 9.2% fewer than in 2010 and

Conclusions?

in 2015. The corresponding figures

practising certificates in Wales has

the number of firms has fallen in each

I leave you to draw your own conclusions

for England are 84,817 in 2012 and

fallen in 9 of the last 20 years.

of the last 5 years.

from these statistics. It looks as though

The number and size of

There are currently 21 ABSs with a

Wales, which is why there are fewer of

The blue and pink lines are broken

solicitors’ firms in Wales

registered address in Wales. There

them, though there are more practising

because the information recorded in

The ASR shows the numbers of private

are approximately 475 ABSs with a

solicitors in England and Wales than

the ASRs changes from time to time:

practice firms which have their head

registered address in England.

there have ever been. But there are fewer

sometimes it records solicitors on the

offices in Wales and in each government

roll in Wales, sometimes admitted

region of England. The ASR also provides

The number of training

for Wales show a pretty bleak picture,

staff with practising certificates.

a breakdown of the size of the firms.

contracts registered in Wales

and the only statistic which points to

The term “private practice firm” includes

One indicator of the health (or wealth)

prosperity is the relatively stable number

The number of solicitors who hold

limited companies, LLPs, partnerships and

of the profession is its willingness to

of trainees being hired. The explanation

practising certificates in Wales varies

unlimited companies but excludes ABSs.

hire trainee solicitors. In England and

for this anomaly may be that the trainees

Wales the number of training contracts

are being hired in the Cardiff area, which

of

where

the

newly

firms are merging in England and

88,268 in 2015: an increase of 4%.

from year to year, unlike the position

practising solicitors in Wales. The figures

in England and Wales combined,

The size of the firm is determined by the

has fallen markedly from a record

is prospering while the rest of the legal

which is far more stable. In Wales, the

number of its owners, not the number

number of 6,303 registrations in

sector in Wales faces serious challenges.

2007/08 to 5,457 in 2014/15. That’s

What do you think? n

Graph 1 Solicitors with practising certificates and solicitors in private practice in Wales, 1994 - 2015

a fall of almost 13.5% in 7 years.

David Dixon Training contracts registered in Wales 1986/87 - 2014/15

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LEGAL NEWS

CONFEDERATION OF SOUTH WALES LAW SOCIETIES Do you know YOU are personally responsible for your

COMPETENCY STATEMENT? Under the new continuing competence regime which becomes compulsory on 1st November 2016, you will need to reflect on and record your professional development. When you apply for your practising certificate you will need to make a declaration that indicates that you have considered your training needs for that year and have met them.

Are you ready for this new approach to Professional Development?

Do you know what is now required of you from November 1st 2016 in terms of demonstrating your competence as a solicitor to the SRA? All will be explained at the

Confederation’s Competency Seminar on 6TH JULY 2016 – 2.00PM to 5.00pm at Cardiff Vale College (Room 440) City Centre Campus, Dumballs Road, Cardiff, CF10 5FE Speakers: Pete Cowan, University of South Wales | David Dixon, Cardiff Law School SRA (TBC) | Wayne Williams, CPM21 COST: £20 PER PERSON | Free Parking on site

BOOKING FORM Full Name: ................................................................................................................................................................................................

Firm:..............................................................................................................................................................................................

Tel: .............................................................................................

DX Number: ......................……………….........................................

Email (PLEASE PRINT) ............................................................................................................................................................................

Address: ................................................................................................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................

I/We should like to book ............... places for the COMPETENCY SEMINAR Note: Bookings cannot be accepted without payment. Please make cheques payable to “The Confederation of South Wales Law Societies” Return to: Michael Walters, 34 Ty Fry Gardens, Cardiff, CF3 3NQ (DX33029 Cardiff), Email: michaelwalters1@hotmail.co.uk

CHANCERY LANE

CHANCERY LANE NEWS When the chief executive of the Law Society, took up her post, she received from the interim chief executive who had preceded her a recommendation that the governance of the Law Society should be changed. She approached the reforms by reviewing, consulting on and amending the Law Society’s strategy before considering the governance arrangements which would be needed to deliver that strategy effectively. This article is about what the Law Society is doing to improve its governance.

This topic bores people outside Chancery Lane, though it excites those within it. But it is important because it is about making the Law Society a democratic and representative organisation which makes good decisions for which there is accountability, quickly and effectively. Those six properties (democracy, representation, good decision-making, accountability, speed and efficiency) dominate the debate about the Law Society’s governance. It is not easy to balance these qualities effectively.

The current arrangements The Law Society council is the supreme decision maker. It consists of up to 100 members, 61 of whom represent 42 geographical constituencies and up to 39 who represent special interest groups and areas of practice. All council members serve terms of 4 years except for the one trainee solicitor member who sits for a 2 year term.

Council members may be re-elected and there is no limit on the number of successive terms they may serve.

Council meets 6 or 7 times a year.

Although it is supreme, it delegates most of its powers to the three office-holders (ie president, vice president and deputy vice-president) and to four boards, all of which are accountable to council and equal in rank. The boards are the Management Board, the Regulatory Affairs Board (which scrutinises the SRA and LSB), the Membership Board (which provides membership services) and the Legal Affairs and Policy Board. Since the Law Society is the approved regulator for solicitors, council also exercises oversight of the SRA board, a function it will lose if the SRA wins independence from the Law Society. Council also approves the budget for the Law Society Group (which includes the SRA) and sets the practising certificate fee. The main criticisms of council are that it is too large and that it is unrepresentative.

Proposals for reform The Law Society appointed Dr Nicola Nicholls, an expert in governance, to lead the review. She told council in March that she was not concerned with the size of council as it was 16

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irrelevant (she later recommended that it should be halved in size) and told us that we were unrepresentative of the profession as we were too white, too old and too male. (She was not quite right about this: 13.9% of PC holders and 13.7% of council members are from BAME groups and 49.7% of solicitors on the roll are women while 36.8% of council members are women. I don’t know about the ages of council members but I suspect that the average age of a council members is higher than that for male solicitors (46) and female solicitors (40)). Dr Nicholls proposed that in addition to the constituency seats there should be a mechanism for selecting members to council to achieve a more representative balance. She also recommended limiting the length of service on council to two successive terms of 3 years.

In order to improve the Society’s decisions, Dr Nicholls recommended the creation of a board of directors, which would be the decision-making body and would hold the chief executive to account: it would supplant council. The board would have a paid chair who was not a council member and would serve for a term of 3 years, and the other 11 members of the board would include 3 paid lay members, the chief executive and some appointed council members.

The directors would meet 6 or 7 times a year. The president would be invited to attend its meetings. The role of the president would be diminished as s/ he would simply be an ambassador for the profession, a figurehead behind which the board of directors would make strategic decisions, decide policy and meet government ministers. Council would met 4 times a year. It would, theoretically, hold the board to account, but in substance the council would do little more than endorse and approve the decisions taken by the board.

Reaction to Dr Nicholls’s recommendations from outside Council Dr Nicholls was particularly concerned with the underrepresentation on council of junior lawyers, lawyers from commerce and industry and those from the City of London. Consequently LEGAL NEWS

she took particular care to consult with these groups. Unsurprisingly, they endorsed her recommendations.

Dr Nicholls briefed the Annual Presidents’ and Secretaries of Local Law Societies Conference about her recommendations. I was unable to attend this, but have been told from several sources that she did not consult them about how the Law Society should be governed.

Instead she asked them if they agreed with the general outline of her proposals. She reported to council that her recommendations received enthusiastic support from that conference. That does not correspond with what I’ve been told by some of those who were present.

Reaction to Dr Nicholls’s recommendations from Council Dr Nicholls considered council to be irrelevant. Consequently she ignored all council members other than those who were members of the governance review group and those who represented the City of London and the JLD during her period of consultation. Although her criticisms of council may be accurate, and although it may be true that council should not be supreme, it was both foolish and crass of her to expect council would agree with her recommendations.

Telling council members who have been elected in contested elections they are unrepresentative of their constituents, too old, and shouldn’t be on council because they have served for too long and don’t have practising certificates is not going to persuade them to your point of view. Incidentally, I don’t accept her criticisms of council and I think council should be the supreme decision-maker within the Law Society.

The most unpleasant debates during my time on council have concerned the governance of the Society and the size of council. Any sensible reviewer of the Law Society’s governance would have discovered this and tried to forge a consensus which supported her proposals by engaging with council members and their local law societies, for example by sending them a questionnaire seeking their

views of what should be done to improve the Law Society’s governance arrangements and allowing this evidence to shape her views.

Next steps The Veyo fiasco convinced me, and many other council members, that the parity of our four boards is a mistake. It has emerged that all four boards were given different accounts of what was happening with Veyo; had Veyo been accountable to a main board, it is likely that the Law Society would have managed the project better. There is a strong case for a senior board which would perform some sort of executive function.

The terms of reference, population and possible payment of that executive and its relationship with council has to be determined next. This will also involve consideration of the size of council and, perhaps, whether the number of consecutive terms should be limited. I have served on council for 10 years: 36 have served longer than me, and 3 others have served as long. Many people choose to stay on council for a long time. There are benefits to this as longserving council members know why the Law Society adopted particular policies and are, generally speaking, able to hold the office holders and chief executive to account. But there are drawbacks too and you may agree with Dr Nicholls that longstanding membership of council breeds complacency so its membership should be refreshed more often.

There was a long debate on the future governance of the Law Society during the May council meeting. It was held in private. In the light of that debate, the governance review group is going to bring more detailed proposals to council for its July meeting and I may be able to report on these in the next issue of Legal News. It will also consider how best to involve local law societies and associations of local law societies more effectively.

After all, it is your profession and your representative body. You should have a say in how it is governed. n David Dixon Twitter: @saldixie

FEATURE

hello professional development welcome to the new regime!

Many firms and individuals will be gearing towards the new approach to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements, due to be implemented from 1st November 2016. Some firms may of course have already voluntarily opted to start the transition. to run a successful practice in the modern legal world.

The Society has of course long provided its members with access to discounted courses, to assist practitioners attain their CPD hours each year. However, the Society recognises that it needs to adapt and cultivate the way in which it can assist members attain not only their traditional education & training needs, but also any other professional development requirements.

Under the new regime, the SRA – following a period of review and consultation – removes the prescriptive requirement for sixteen hours CPD training each year and replaces it with a more flexible system, where the individual is responsible for the assessment and maintenance of the appropriate amount of learning and development that he/she needs to remain competent.

to be constantly changing. The most recent edition of the SRA Handbook was published in 2011, but we are already up to version 16 - with a new edition on the horizon. In these days of outcomes-focused regulation, the roles of Compliance Officers for Legal Practice (COLPs) and Compliance Officers for Finance and Administration (COFAs) are instrumental in creating a culture of compliance.

Further information on the new approach can be found at: www.sra. org.uk. Readers are encouraged to study this closely well before the implementation date.

Cardiff & District Law Society’s membership has reached record levels in recent years. There is certainly a continuing local demand for courses and seminars, not only offering traditional legal skills, but increasingly those other skills needed

We are in a legal market that appears

Under the new approach to CPD, the Society is able to provide its members with a more flexible approach to professional development.

The Society has recognised the need to modernise its education & training role – now streamlined to Professional Development. In place of the Education & Training Secretary, the Society now has a Professional Development Officer.

However, behind these new titles lies a continuing desire to assist members with their professional development – at all stages and at all levels throughout their legal careers.

The success of last year’s trilogy of seminars on Welsh Devolution hosted by the Society demonstrated how this approach can work for the benefit of its members, as did the Society’s inaugural Managing Partners and Directors Lunch and subsequent presentation by Chris Nott, Chair of the Financial and Professional Services Advisory Panel.

As always, details of any appropriate courses, seminars and other professional development events will be shared with the Society’s members through this column, as well as being advertised via the Society’s website and newsletters.

The first event to be held under the Society’s new regime will be the forthcoming Managing Partners and Directors Lunch at Geldards LLP on 29th June 2016 at 12.30pm. Further details and booking arrangements can be found elsewhere in this edition. This networking lunch will allow attendees to share ideas and experiences, as well as discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the profession. It will hopefully also be the catalyst for members to express their professional development needs for the year ahead.

The Society is always keen to listen to its members and encourage suggestions as to any areas where members consider that they need assistance in their professional development, whether individually or on a firm-wide basis. This will help the Society in allocating resources to assist members effectively - For example, by organising courses that deal with local demands, where possible.

Welcome to the new regime! n Tom Danter Professional Development Officer Cardiff & District Law Society tomd@dolmans.co.uk

Further information on the new approach can be found at: www.sra.org.uk.

Readers are encouraged to study this closely well before the implementation date.

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LEGAL NEWS