Law Society given a wigging on handling of legal reform ballot

Published on Friday 19 March 2010 21:51

THE Law Society of Scotland is acting as "judge, jury and executioner" for the Scottish legal profession by presiding over an "unfair and undemocratic" referendum on legal reform, a leading Scots lawyer has claimed.

Mike Dailly, of the Govan Law Centre, has called on the president of the society to resign over his "Mugabesque" handling of the profession-wide ballot on the introduction of non-lawyer ownership to Scottish firms.

Next week, lawyers across Scotland will be asked to pass judgment on the Scottish government's Legal Services Bill, which will allow the introduction of "alternative business structures" – moves backed by the society.

But Mr Dailly, who was part of the group that forced the vote, has attacked the tactics employed by the society in the run-up to the referendum, accusing its office bearers of "aggressive" campaigning.

Mr Dailly maintains that council members such as president Ian Smart should be neutral in the debate over the reforms that some critics have dubbed "Tesco law" over fears supermarkets could run legal services.

Mr Dailly said: "The Law Society is presiding over a polling exercise whereby it is also the chief campaigner and PR agent for 'Tesco Law'. It's the judge, jury and executioner of the independence of our profession.

"Our office-bearers and officials should be neutral in this debate. They have taken it upon themselves to dictate to members how they should vote. This democratic deficit can only be described as Mugabesque."

He added: "(Ian Smart] has been responsible for an undemocratic and unfair voting process. I believe that our president should go, and go quickly."

The society's council will face a potentially hostile special general meeting on Thursday at which its handling of the reforms will be debated. That will be followed by another profession-wide vote on whether the Law Society should be stripped of its role as representative body for the profession.

Both votes were forced by a growing band of rebel solicitors, angry at measures originally included in the bill that could have seen Scottish ministers permitted to intervene in the make-up of the society's council.

On Thursday, community safety minister Fergus Ewing moved to head off the rebellion, dramatically dropping the controversial measures that critics claim threatened the independence of Scottish lawyers.

Yesterday, Mr Dailly said the announcement was a "positive step", but he added: "The irony is that the Law Society was intimately involved in the drafting of the bill, and were previously not bothered about section 92."

But Mr Smart insisted that both referendums would be independent, secret ballots, run by the Electoral Reform Society. "The Law Society will have nothing to do with it," he insisted. "It is an absurd charge that the ballot is going to be nobbled."

He went on: "I am campaigning for the policy of the Law Society. The policy is to be in favour of ABS. The opponents are openly saying they are trying to overturn that policy. To say the president of the society cannot campaign for its policy is nonsense.

"Fergus Ewing's announcement closes down the debate. Mike Dailly's fox has been shot."