I will not be responding as I have not been in practice for almost 30 years – an era when regulation was a very different thing – and came off the roll over a decade ago. No locus? No skin in the game?

Perhaps not, but a unique perspective. I act as a consultant to law firms all over Scotland and that is important. Management advice, positively not legal. Aspects of regulation and ethics, but now almost entirely mergers and retirement planning. 

Not what I set out to do, but that’s where the market and the profession have taken me. I have now acted for almost 200 firms and dozens of individuals. A good few big ones, but largely now what I describe (in a non-pejorative manner) as the high street. At any one time, I will have about 12-15 deals ongoing.

So, I think I can claim to know understand general practice. Why do SLAS find that 50 per cent of respondents are considering leaving the profession? Compliance. Spending about 30 per cent of their desk time on form filling and bottom covering. Big firms have teams and departments for this sort of thing. In local firms it eats directly into partner duties. Regulation is killing small firms. All the fault of the Law Society? Not totally.

I am not getting into a zero-sum tit-for-tat between the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and LSS except to say my experience recently of the latter has left a lot to be desired. An awful lot, but again that is for another article.

I am sure the SLAS statistic of 50 per cent wanting out is across all age ranges. In the client base I have, 55-plus, it must be almost 90 per cent. And it is no surprise that compliance is easily the biggest bugbear. And for what?

I reckon the City of London will launder more in a microsecond than the Scottish legal profession will in a decade. Alright, the Lyons/Robertson case can be cited against us, but compliance for the average conveyancing transaction – both for the solicitor and the client – is disproportionate and hugely onerous. Surely it is not beyond the wit of mankind to design a system which is more focussed and less burdensome? 

The other main concern for high street firms, you may have been wondering? The impossibility of recruitment of young lawyers outside Glasgow and Edinburgh. An issue we share with dentists, GPs, vets et al. But that is for another article.

So, Darren, more power to your elbow, but be prepared to be disillusioned. You have highlighted a critical issue, but will 900 high street firms respond in detail to give you the mandate you deserve? No, most will mumble and complain and do nothing. Probably because they are too busy, or frankly a bit scared to stick their heads above the parapet. Apathy rules.

Douglas Mill