Douglas Mill
Chief Executive’s Report
2004 will go down as the year of external investigation for the Society. While it was anticipated that the Review of the Regulation of Legal Services in England and Wales by (the now Sir) David Clementi would involve our Society in a considerable workload, the investigation initiated by the Office of Fair Trading into what they see as the anti-competitive status of our Master Policy was less predictable and involved in particular our Registrar David Cullen in a phenomenal amount of work.
Allied to this, Michael Clancy, our Director of Law Reform, and I represent the Society on the Scottish Executive’s Research Working Group – a Group charged with the responsibility of finding a Scottish evidence base for consideration of any Clementi outcomes this side of the border.
Furthermore, as I write in late January the Scottish Executive is shortly to report on progressing the recommendations of the Justice 1 Committee. This led first of all in December to the increase in IPS levels from £1,000 to £5,000.
You may take from this that the year has been somewhat turbulent, and it has.
The turbulence of 2004 also impacted on our relationship with our long-standing Master Policy Brokers, Marsh. Thankfully, through the good offices of their UK Chief Executive, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, a series of unfortunate differences was contained and the continuing unparalleled commitment to the profession of the stalwart Alistair Sim, and his team in Edinburgh, meant that matters returned to a strong footing.
While regulation has been the focus of the Society’s work over the past year there has been significant progress in other areas. One of my objectives for the year was the preparation of a Strategic Plan for the Executive as well as ensuring that the Client Relations Office continue to rise to the challenge of time-limits and an increase in volume, and that the Society responds fully and adequately to all external reviews.
The Strategic Plan was developed with the Executive, launched to Council and now forms a work programme, on a rolling two-year basis with a six-monthly review, for the Society. This provides the staff with clear focused objectives.
I am also pleased to report that after almost a decade of pressure, meaningful progress has now been made this year in giving our big firms the level playing field which they require in relation to Multi-National Practice.
Two personal highlights this year were the Annual Conference on the Prevention of Money Laundering at the SECC in Glasgow and the launch of the Young Citizens’ Passport in Edinburgh. At the Annual Conference a phenomenally impressive list of speakers addressed a sell-out audience of Scottish solicitors on a subject of critical importance to the profession. In terms of feel-good factor this was eclipsed only by the launch of the Young Citizens’ Passport – a joint project with Hodder Gibson Educational Publishers for Scotland, whose Director John Mitchell is to be thanked for his initiative. To see so many enthusiastic schoolchildren being overawed by the Signet Library and being genuinely appreciative of this publication went some way to offset 2004’s slings and arrows.
Douglas Mill
Chief Executive