Law and Legal Affairs: 'Anything is possible' for society's new vice-president

Published on Tuesday 4 January 2011 10:46

In Austin Lafferty, the Law Society of Scotland will have a tireless worker

POLITICS is the art of the possible, according to the 19th-century German statesman, Otto von Bismarck. The politics of the Law Society of Scotland is also the art of the possible, according to Austin Lafferty.

The man often lazily described as TV lawyer Austin Lafferty is the society's vice-president elect. He beat David Newton by a narrow margin under the STV system (single transferrable vote, not Scottish Television) and takes up office in May. He will serve a year as VP under Cameron Ritchie, then step up to the big job in 2012.

Lafferty is a firm believer in building unity and consensus, and sees this as one of his key tasks as a bruised society retrenches after a period of internecine warfare and self-examination arising from the rancorous debate over alternative business structures (ABS). This is where the art of the possible comes in.

"Some members are very critical of the society," he says. "But I have been involved in various committees and working groups since 2006 and I know that the best job that can be done is being done.

"It's not a failure of the society to pass on the aspirations of those critical members - it's the art of the possible. For example, there are those who criticised the society very volubly for allowing ABS to come in. The reality was that the government was dead set on doing it and the Law Society was trying to soften the blow and make it workable, in the interests of both solicitors and members of the public."

Without wishing to stretch the comparison, Bismarck also said that one should always have two irons in the fire and Austin Lafferty certainly follows that maxim. As well as being managing director of his eponymous law firm, he appears very regularly on radio and TV, and already sits on several Law Society committees (he loves the audit committee in particular), as well as its council.

Is it too much to take on the society office as well? "No - they say if you want something doing, ask a busy man and I do work very, very hard and I would like to carry on the committee work. I have organised my firm in such a way that the six other solicitors and trainee carry most of the caseload."

Lafferty, 51, admits there is an element of ambition in seeking office: "I went on to the council in 2006 at a point when I was looking for a challenge beyond my own firm, and became very interested in the workings of committees. Then I thought it was time to jump up."

He is very clear where he stands on one bone of Law Society contention - the continuing pressure (by some) to split its regulatory and representative functions."I don't want to see it going the way of England, where the split has been a disaster. I'm not speculating that it should be a unitary body (with both regulatory and representative functions], I know it for a fact.

"Some believe it should be split, for perfectly honourable reasons, and one thing I want to do is try to heal the divisions between the various strands of opinion. I'd like to think I'm one of the right people for the job - I do a lot of matrimonial work and I look for negotiation and common ground rather than firing howitzers.

"One lawyer said to me that he wanted to get on to the council of the Law Society to 'kick some backsides'. Once he was in there, he saw there was a gigantic amount of work going on with the best of intentions."

Lafferty understands why some members feel this particular disconnection from the society, but feels he has a genuine understanding of what goes on; even before joining the council, he was on the marketing committee back in the late 1990s, and has a long-term friendship with Michael Clancy, the society's cerebral director of law reform.

"I'm not coming in from the cold and making a song and dance," he says. "I have a running start."

This might be an appropriate metaphor, for Lafferty plans to clock up the miles during his time as vice-president, and president. "Part of it will be a very physical pilgrimage," he explains. "I don't want to get involved in chains of critical and insulting e-mails. If you sit around a table and talk to people in a mature, professional manner, you are much more likely to get action and results than issuing promulgations on a website.

"I will make myself available wherever I am needed - in Arbroath, Dumfries, Aberdeen - to try to make people feel part of the society. My ambition is to try to achieve glasnost, so that people of a different opinion feel part of the process, rather than feeling they are being fed diktats from on high."

So why is there a gap between the Law Society and some of its members? "Lawyers are very trigger-sensitive to conflicts of interest," says Lafferty. "They make almost daily judgments about conflicts of interest when representing clients. And you can see the argument - regulation and representation are two different functions. If you are a representative body, it's slightly odd if you are regulating by sitting in judgment on your peers with the ability to strike them off.

"The Law Society is in a poacher-and-gamekeeper role and those who oppose that ask, 'Is the Law Society for me or against me? Is it an ally in a time of need?' This is an area where the society's persuasion has been unsuccessful - the forces who were critical are still critical."

So what can Lafferty do? "I don't have a magic wand. Austin Lafferty's chat and banter won't calm everyone down but I understand the challenge and if anyone can do it, I think I'm one of those people."Will his background be a help or a hindrance? "I think it will help because I can communicate and I know about presentation - both written and spoken. I think because I am a recognisable figure to very many Scots, it helps - because it gives a face to the society."

What issues does Lafferty think will characterise the immediate future? His first answer is perhaps not an obvious one, and sounds a cautionary note for in-house lawyers: "About a third of society members work in-house and their employers - whether banks, councils or other public bodies - will be looking increasingly at whether they actually need a lawyer with a practising certificate. For financial reasons, they might think they need someone with legal knowledge who can do the work - but don't necessarily need a qualified solicitor. If they are looking at budgets, big organisations might wonder if they need 19 solicitors, or maybe just one plus paralegals."

For the bigger firms, Lafferty thinks ABS will continue to be a big issue. He believes "external investment has to be a weapon in their armoury" but has concerns that regulatory issues for medium-size firms looking at ABS have to work effectively.

And then there is Legal Aid. "It's huge," he says. "Money is at the heart of it. Whatever governments say, they want legal aid to cost as little as possible. That's their job, but if they want a proper system of justice, there is a price to be paid. We cannot relax our vigilance for a second, for the sake of the legal profession and the public."

So if the politics of law in Scotland is the art of the possible, what isn't possible? Lafferty, the eternal optimist, replies simply: "Almost everything is possible."