ARTICLE
Back to a new normal and Council report E
veryone will have their own perspective on work life balance as the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic and successive lockdowns. There are expert studies suggesting that there has been an acceleration to more remote working in industries where there will be no going back, and that some occupations will change forever. The position is acknowledged to be more complicated where work demands closer engagement with suppliers, customers and clients and many types of legal work do fall within that category. There is also the unanswered question as to whether remote working is more efficient or effective than organisational or social working in groups. No doubt contracts of employment are being recalibrated and this is set to continue over the coming year or two as the true impact of what has occurred emerges. The return to work in the profession is by no means universal and many remain reluctant to meet collectively or even socially. For example, our own Middlesex Law Society Committee has not been active and whilst occasional online events can be useful remote meetings are generally not found to be as satisfactory as live face-to-face events. The national Law Society has itself adapted to providing more online courses and has held a number of Council and Committee and other online events. Last year's Annual General Meeting was attended by many times more than the customary number of around 100. This year's General Meeting was hybrid and extremely interesting as members in the room were able to interact and those online were also in a position to contribute. There was extremely lively debate around a private member resolution that objected to the SRA decision concerning the closure of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund. This was carried and the meeting also adopted a Council statement that it would accept that the decision relating to the continuation of the Fund was a regulatory matter to be determined by the SRA. Further the Society committed to working with the SRA to facilitate the extension of SIF and confirmed its belief that it is in the interests of the profession and the wider public that affordable, professional indemnity insurance continues at the end of the mandatory six-year run-off period. This year's AGM also marked a turning point for the future of the Law Society Council. More than 50 member seats were up for election and 20 council members having served for more than 12 years were disqualified from returning. The 61 geographic seats have been reorganised to reduce their total number by 15 and replaced by the creation of 15 new seats to represent specified work and community sectors. Unfortunately, the databases available to the Law Society have not proved complete and it was not possible to finalise some of the elections and those have been deferred until next year.
8 | The Bill of Middlesex
