The Law Society – whose side is it on anyway?

Imagine you're defending a finance firm facing a multimillion-pound contract case. On the prosecution side are three barristers and a QC. On the defence side, you were on your own. You’d soon be gone and on no one’s side.

But didn’t something like this happen to a young, newly qualified junior solicitor? Claire Matthews was a paid-up member of the Law Society who left a suitcase with sensitive documents on public transport. She needed a defence team when she was eventually prosecuted by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).

Yet, she was left to represent herself while the senior and highpowered team of lawyers at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) threw the book at her. After a four-day hearing, a promising career was left in tatters. She was struck off and ordered to pay £10,000 in costs. She has now found work in a call centre earning £9 per hour. The incident led to her suffering mental issues and ‘drinking bleach in an attempt to end her life’.

Abdicates its primary function

You have to ask yourself, if the young lawyer was to receive justice, where was her equality of arms? What was the Law Society doing? The Law Society as a matter of policy does not represent its members before the SDT. It chooses to abdicates its primary function of representing members at the most crucial time of their career.

Not surprisingly, the SRA received an avalanche of criticism over its decision to prosecute but not from the Law Society. The Junior Lawyers Division rose to the occasion when it called out the SRA and declared it had lost confidence in them.

Meanwhile, Claire Matthews, with pro-bono support from Leigh Day, has now gone to Crowdfund and has raised £13,000 of the £40,000 to fund a hearing at the High Court.

The Law Society has maintained its deafening silence.

Equality of arms

Whilst we all believe that the roughs in our profession should be sanctioned. We all also believe, that when a solicitor’s livelihood is at stake, justice demands equality of arms.

No solicitor should be struck off without their case being put adequately. No solicitor should find their career ended through lack of personal funds to fight their corner. After all, surely, that is what the Law Society is for – to fight for every solicitor’s interests. What interest could be more important to a solicitor than their very survival.

Yet the Law Society is content with being a lobbying group – not a particularly effective one at that – but not an advocate for its individual, membership fee payers who pay the Society’s salaries. It’s time for the Law Society to wake up to whose side they’re on and accept its raison d’etre – it’s the members stupid. ■

Paul Sharma

Senior Vice President, Westminster & Holborn Law Society

Founder & Managing Partner of Sharma Solicitors