Although I am a member of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland and chair its Strategy Group, which is tasked with redefining the role of the solicitor in Scotland, I write in a personal capacity, principally as your average high-street lawyer. I respond to Ian Fraser's article (The Herald, August 6), reporting on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) supercomplaint into the legal services market in Scotland.
The piece majored on our few megafirms such as Dundas & Wilson, which employ many lawyers in the commoditised end of Scots and supranational law. Their position broadly is that they welcome a shaking-up of the legal market, to let them create a better platform to compete against firms south of Scotland - ie, London.
So far so good. As the big few firms have grown, they must look beyond this nation to spread their wings, and good luck to them. However, the article failed to address the wider and, for most of your readers, more relevant point of how the profession serves them.
Not all of us want to act for Marks & Spencer, or Aberdeen Asset Management or the Queen. And, in limiting the scope of your argument, the impression I got was that our chief executive, Douglas Mill, was being cast as Canute QC holding back the waves while saying the OFT should not pass.
This is unfair. Mr Mill's priorities are to balance the interests of the whole legal profession, and, by statutory obligation, the whole of the Scottish public.
Mr Mill's comments were as accurate as they were relevant in the wider question of the place of the legal profession in Scotland.
It was pleasing that you reported Mr Mill's reference to the ongoing dialogue the profession has with, among others, the Scottish Executive, to find ways forward that are mutually beneficial to the profession and the public.
I do not believe that the quotes from senior big-firm solicitors reflect the relationship of the whole profession with the buying public or with the Law Society of Scotland. It is wrong to say that the legal market is like any other, and that the Law Society is kidding itself and must up its game. The English are waking up to the fact that they are about to be legislated into a cocked hat. This is the reason the supercomplaint is premature.
Certainly we must be competitive - against others of equal professionalism. Certainly we must be accountable and give value for money (we do). And the world has changed and the legal profession must adapt (we are adapting). But to caricature the profession, the Law Society and the chief executive as somehow resisting proper change is not right.
Lawyers are habitually portrayed as self-serving dealers of legal cards they keep close to their chest. The hint is that deregulation will somehow bring us to heel. But the reality is this: just as you want your daughter's ruptured spleen taken out by a highly-trained medic, not by the checkout person at Tesco, neither would you want your divorce handled by some bod whose credentials and training are not recognised as first class.
Austin Lafferty, 52 Bothwell Street, Glasgow.
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