Constitution

At the Council meeting on the 27 April, Council members proposed a motion to be put to the Society's general meeting in May, backing a reduction in the size of Council from 62 to 46 members. There was a clear support for a smaller Council when the Society consulted with the profession on the constitution earlier in the year. Details of the proposals are available here.

Following the consultation (Feb-Mar 2012) on a proposed new constitution, the Society decided to take forward a proposal on Council size while not proceeding with a fully revised version of the constitution at that time.  

An earlier proposal for a revised constitution achieved majority backing at the 2011 annual general meeting, without reaching the necessary two-third majority required to rescind the existing constitution (a total of 820 (52%) were in favour of rescinding the current constitution, with 743 (48%) against and nine abstentions). Following that general meeting, work continued on revising the draft proposal considering amendments suggested by members. This was carried out during the final quarter of 2011. Responses to the consultation on this latest version have indicated that reservations on aspects of the proposed new constitution remain. Council took the decision on 30 March 2012 to proceed only with a proposal to reduce the size of Council.

Consultation

The consultation elicited a number of responses. 11 responses were written (see document on right of page) and some through formal and informal meetings held with a wide range of individuals and organisations, covering high street, big firm, in house (central and local government) and private sector and spanning far north to south and east to west of Scotland and outwith the jurisdiction (both England and further afield). The working group has yet to consider the specifics made in the responses and will do so in due course. The Society is grateful to members who responded or who gave their time to meet with Society representatives.

Issues raised in the meetings included:

• welcome of the consultation;
• clear appreciation among most of need for smaller Council (some lobbied for greater reduction in size);
• significant focus on ensuring geographically elected Council membership reflected properly the profession - and constituencies were divided up accordingly;
• wide interest in remote participation - in both attending and voting at general meetings and also in terms of participating in Society's committee business etc;
• participation was main point of interest from younger end of the profession and was considered key to their being able to engage in the way they want and expect to be able to;
• some interest in having greater clarity around governance structures;
• concern as to whether a wholly new constitution was necessary and whether that might pose greater risk than sticking with current one and amending it;
• most accepted that it was preferable to have document that could more readily evolve and adapt to changes in profession but meaningful view that might pose unnecessary risk (as above)

• lack of interest in the issue

Voting and Participation

There is interest in developing a more modern system of voting for general meetings and Council elections. This would give members a greater opportunity to participate in the Society's activities and governance. It would involve secure online voting - as many companies now use - and making greater use of our own member database technology to encourage voting by members from their desktop.

Many employed solicitors cannot take the time to attend a general meeting. The present proxy system is unwieldy, costly and the timescales difficult.  All of this is to be investigated to bring proposals for members to consider in the coming months.

For further information please contact

Henry Robson

Deputy Chief Executive
The Law Society of Scotland
26 Drumsheugh Gardens
EDINBURGH
EH3 7YR
LP 1 EDINBURGH-1
Tel: 0131 226 7411
constitution@lawscot.org.uk