New body 'will rival Law Society'

"This goes to the heart of the question: what is the Law Society there to do? Are they there to represent the profession? It seems to me they have failed on that front. It has taken a handful of associations to stand up and be counted." - GRAEME RUNCIE, EDINBURGH BAR ASSOCIATION

Story in full A MAJOR schism is opening within Scotland's legal profession with lawyers across the country plotting to create a new national association to represent their interests, The Scotsman has learned.

The proposed new body reflects an unprecedented militancy among Scotland's 1,500 registered legal-aid lawyers and a rejection of the traditional representative role played for decades by the Law Society of Scotland.

The Scottish Executive is currently obliged to conduct negotiations with the Law Society, but one lawyer behind the plans for a new national grouping last night warned: "The Executive will have to deal with us."

The new association would be a second blow for the society which already faces losing part of its traditional role of policing the legal profession under plans for an independent complaints commission.

Some lawyers are angry at the Law Society's decision last week to accept a 1.3 million increase in legal aid for the most serious criminal work and resume co-operation with the Executive, and believe a new national body would better fight their corner in future battles with ministers.

Bar associations will meet over the next few days to decide whether to call off a proposed boycott of sex cases, which would have created a massive backlog of trails in Scotland's courts and was condemned by Jack McConnell as "shocking and disgraceful".

Vincent McGovern, the spokesman for the Hamilton Bar Association, said the creation of a national "faculties forum" was being discussed to "speak up" for the profession at a time when the Scottish Executive was bombarding them with reforms.

"We understand that the Law Society also does the job of representing solicitors but the bottom line is that the message we need to get across simply has not been delivered," he said.

"It is felt the only way we can protect our interests is to have some sort of cohesive, co-ordinated national body that can liaise with members of faculties and speak with some authority.

"It would act as a counterbalance with the Law Society who negotiated with the Executive without a mechanism for proper consultation."

He added: "The Executive will have to deal with us and the Law Society will have to take instructions from us."

He said a meeting would be held in Perth within the next few weeks to thrash out plans for the new national body.

Graeme Runcie, the president of the Edinburgh Bar Association, added: "This goes to the heart of the question: what is the Law Society there to do? Are they there to represent the profession? It seems to me they have failed on that front. It has taken a handful of associations to stand up and be counted."

But senior Law Society officials last night dismissed suggestions that they had failed to represent lawyers' interests, insisting it was their negotiations which secured meetings with deputy justice minister Hugh Henry and, ultimately, an improved pay offer of 8 per cent for court work and 12 per cent for all other work backdated to December 2005.

Oliver Adair, the convener of the society's Legal Aid (Solicitors) Committee, said he welcomed plans for a national network of lawyers to act as an "intermediary" between lawyers and the society. But he added: "I don't accept that the society is in any way disinclined to represent the interests of the profession.

"It seems to be our negotiations were successful."