John McGovern, solicitor-advocate and President of the GBA, Walter Semple, solicitor and GLC's Principal Solcitor, Mike Dailly have all been elected to the Council of the Law Society of Scotland in the Sheriff Court District of Glasgow and Strathkelvin. Together with past GBA President, David O'Hagan, solicitor, they represent a strong contigent against the external ownership and control of law firms in Scotland, and the need for progressive Law Society reform. The full results are available here. GLC's Mike Dailly said: "I would like to thank all of the Glasgow solicitors who voted for me. I will work with my colleagues to deliver progressive reform in the interest of the Scottish public and their independent solicitors and law firms. If any Glasgow solicitor wishes to raise any law society or justice related issue with me you can e-mail me on councilmrd @ gmail.com (with 'council' in the subject line) and I will do my best to try and help".
"Together we have already changed the Law Society's policy on 100% external ownership. Together we can go further. There is a growing consensus for a compromise position of capping non-solicitor ownership at 25%, but requiring those non-solicitor professionals to be working within the firm, and providing a service incidental to the work of the firm. This would mean Scottish law firms remained independent, Scottish, law firms. If you want to support this reasonable compromise position please grant a proxy in favour of the Scottish Law Agents Society. A proxy form can be downloaded here (opens as PDF)".
The papers for the forthcoming AGM of the Law Society of Scotland are available online here.
