From Cardiff to Cambridge, solicitors’ voices shape our future
As we look ahead and plan for next year, drawing on the collective expertise of our 200,000 plus members has been vital in supporting the creation of our new three-year strategy.
We’ve been celebrating our 200th anniversary, reflecting on how society and our profession have evolved and diversified since we were founded.
It’s also been an opportunity for us to look to the future to understand the key challenges solicitors will face in the years ahead.
From technology and the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), to supporting our workforce by making sure wellbeing is prioritised – there are plenty of challenges and opportunities for our profession to balance.
But with so many topics to consider, how have we decided what’s most important?
Looking outwards
Looking outwards, rather than inwards, is the basis for creating a relevant strategy that will make a real difference to solicitors in England and Wales.
We used a variety of data sources, including listening to our members’ views and experiences, to make sure this new strategy is robust and reflects your needs.
As well as analysing data about solicitors and the legal profession, we also considered wider economic, political, social, environmental, and technological factors.
This resulted in:
- thousands of pieces of insight and feedback from solicitors being reviewed, including research, consultations online and in person, defining the issues
- over 30 foresight reports, including strategies from other key organisations, providing insight into trends that could shape the future of the profession and law
- almost four million visits to online content, including web and social media, understanding which topics solicitors and people in the profession engaged with the most
Listening on location
Crucially, we gained a large amount of feedback from meeting solicitors in-person across England and Wales, and internationally, as part of our bicentenary celebrations.
Our president Richard Atkinson, along with our other office holders, Council members, executive leadership, and staff met face to face with over 1,200 members and stakeholders at 18 locations, including Cardiff, Newcastle, Norwich and Bristol.
In total, we spent almost 4,000 hours listening to, and engaging with, solicitors.
Photograph: Two solicitors smile and pose holding a photo frame at our Liverpool bicentenary event.
Hearing solicitors’ voices
We undertook our annual practising certificate fee consultation, which is an opportunity to get solicitors’ views on what you think we should be focusing on in upcoming years.
Over 1,100 of you took part in the consultation, giving us the valuable insight we needed to help inform our priorities for the new strategy.
Your chance to Get Involved
You helped to shape our ambitious new plans, and you’ll also have the chance to help us deliver them through our soon-to-be launched volunteering programme, Get Involved.
Get Involved will enable us to hear as many different perspectives and experiences as possible, by offering solicitors flexible opportunities to come together and share your knowledge, experience and expertise to address the key issues affecting you.
The programme will strengthen our work and make sure we’re truly representative of this diverse profession.
We’ll continue to benefit from our established structures, including our Council and committees who have helped refine our focus, but Get Involved will empower more solicitors to contribute their expertise on topics of most interest to them, in ways that fit their workloads and lives.
Find out more
Find out more about our key areas of focus in our new strategy, from November.
Learn about our successful series of bicentenary events.