Law Society of Scotland sets out five-year strategy

The Law Society of Scotland has published details of a five-year strategy designed to expand the range of services offered to its members and offer membership to other legal professionals.

Leading Legal Excellence, which was published on the Society’s website today, lays out how the lawyers’ body will offer membership to legal professionals beyond its current 11,000 solicitors, reflecting wider changes seen across the legal market.

It also proposes extending the Society’s global presence by striving to ensure its members have internationally recognised qualifications which allow them to practise across traditional jurisdictional boundaries, whether elsewhere in the UK or overseas.

Christine McLintock, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said she was excited by its “scope and ambition”.

She said: “Our mission is to be a world-class professional body, which serves a growing membership, assures the public and influences the world around us.

“We want our members to be able to thrive whatever their area of practice, wherever they are in the world. That is why we will develop new products and services, helping our members to meet the ever changing needs of their clients and employers. It is why we will continue to set high standards and take action when those standards are not met.”

Citing rapid change within the legal sector, Ms McLintock said the Society is looking to “change our approach to ensure that we meet the needs of both our membership and the public they serve”.

She said: “The pace of change within the legal sector has been even greater than we anticipated, such as the rise in the use of paralegals, legal executives and legal technicians and growth in outsourcing of legal work.

“In recent years we have also seen the emergence of new types of business models delivering legal services, even without the regulatory provisions being in place which would allow the creation of ‘alternative business structures’ and see solicitors able to set up in partnership with non-lawyer professionals for the first time.”

Ms McLintock also said the Law Society wanted to give more support to the “increasing numbers” of law graduates in Scotland who are choosing to work elsewhere in the UK and overseas while retaining their Law Society of Scotland membership.

She explained: “As the legal market responds to the challenges and opportunities of using new technologies and increased globalisation, we expect increasing numbers of our law graduates to work outwith Scotland.

“We want to offer the right kind of support to all of our members, wherever their careers take them in the world, and ensure that their Law Society of Scotland membership is valuable to them.”