Supporting legal businesses in challenging times

'As an international law firm, sharing best practice and developing links with our overseas colleagues and contacts is a key priority. Without the Law Society Tier 5 scheme our ability to provide work experience placements in the UK over the last year would have been severely compromised'.
Duncan Weston, managing partner, CMS Cameron McKenna LLP

Our first priority is to support the solicitors' profession. During the past year this has focused on helping solicitors to cope with the worst effects of the downturn and to succeed once it has passed.

Finance facility to spread PC fee cost

We negotiated a new finance facility that enabled members to spread the cost of their practising certificate (PC) fee and other associated Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) fees over 10 months for the 2009/10 year. It will be available again in 2010/11.

Help with PII renewals

The services we provide to help solicitors secure professional indemnity insurance (PII) at the best price were extended. We opened a new helpline during the renewal period, helping over 1,600 solicitors, and held an extensive series of regional seminars as well as our first live webinar (live online seminar) on the subject. Also new is a free market intelligence guide, Insurance Matters, published three times a year and available to all practitioners in hard copy or online. Further support includes a practice note with advice on managing the process and presenting your firm in the best light, and a buyers' guide produced in association with the insurance industry.

Scheme to help firms keep overseas talent

The first year of our scheme for migrant lawyers under Tier 5 (T5) of the points-based system has helped many law firms run internship and secondment programmes that were threatened by new immigration rules. As the overarching body for this T5 scheme we authorise eligible firms to issue certificates of sponsorship to prospective short-term migrants, enabling them to continue to develop international networks and providing certainty in planning secondment and exchange programmes. We continue to argue for fewer restrictions to ensure that England and Wales remains the jurisdiction of choice and that UK law firms are not placed at a competitive disadvantage.

Defending conveyancing practitioners

In response to the decision by a number of financial institutions to dismiss many conveyancing practitioners from their lender panels we set up a high level dialogue with the lenders to understand the issues behind this action. As a result a number of lenders have considered appeals and reinstated some firms, and also sought to be more transparent over their procedures.

Dialogue with stakeholders

We conduct an ongoing dialogue with key organisations such as the British Bankers Association, the Association of British Insurers, the Financial Services Authority and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to ensure that solicitors have a strong voice on issues that affect them and their clients, and we have a strong track record in securing favourable outcomes for our members.