Leading the profession

Lawscot Sustainability
We will lead the conversation with the profession on climate related matters by building on the Society’s commitments in our 2022-27 strategy and maintaining an open dialogue with the profession and related bodies around sustainability and the climate crisis.

Following the adoption of a climate change resolution in November 2023, we launched a new Sustainability resource hub, marking our commitment to engaging with the profession on the climate crisis. We also launched a series of monthly sustainability ‘top tips’.

We hosted and attended sustainability focused events including: Lawyers and Law Associations: tackling the climate crisis; the Scottish Parliament’s in-house legal “snippets” session; In-house Annual Conference panel session; a roundtable for larger firms; and our Annual Conference panel session

As a new committee, the Sustainability Committee focused on raising awareness of its work and engagement with Law Society committees and other forums (incl our Public Policy Committee; Environmental Law Sub-Committee; Scottish Climate Emergency Lawyers Network; and Faculty Leaders Forum)

Grow associate members
We will increase our accredited Paralegal and Fellow communities as part of our commitment to the professionalisation of the wider sector.

We had a successful year with greater levels of engagement and communication with our associate member groups.

The number of Accredited Paralegals grew by 7.8% over the course of the year, ending with 690 accredited and a retention rate of 94%.

A new general paralegal accreditation approved by the Law Society Board and while no new area-specific accreditations were introduced this year, plans for a banking and finance accreditation are being developed.

Our Fellow membership numbers grew by 16% with 57 members at the end of the year. The engagement programme for Fellows is well-received and we continue to attract enquiries from potential members.

We have 21 accredited Legal Technologists and continue to promote this specialism where relevant.

Equality, Diversity and inclusion in the profession
We will continue to promote the benefits of increased diversity throughout the profession, focusing on gender equality, racial inclusion and disability.

This is an important area of work for the Society and we hosted a series of round table events which focused on specific issues raised in response to the Profile of the Profession research work.

Work on our strategic response to Profile of the Profession was paused while we recruited a new Head of Diversity. Following appointment, the new Head of Diversity adopted a new approach to planning the response to the Profile of the Profession outcomes with a view to including this as part of a new EDI strategy.

Equality, Diversity and inclusion at the Law Society
We will seek accreditation as a Leader in Diversity, a higher standard than our existing accreditation as an Investor in Diversity. We will reinforce our commitment to ensuring that the Law Society is a positive environment where all our colleagues and volunteers feel they can be their true self.

Our internal equality, diversity and inclusion work saw us achieve accreditation with the National Centre for Diversity, promoting the Society from Investor status to being a Leader in Diversity.

A diagnostic report has been used to form an action plan for 2024 and beyond to ensure our work in this area continues and meets strategic objectives.

In addition, we introduced a new range of allyship and bystander awareness training for staff and we also Increased the use of authentic story telling on our colleague intranet to bring our FREDIE (Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement) work to life. We also marked key events including International Women’s Day and Pride.

Social Mobility
We will enhance our work on social mobility, helping to bring down the barriers that stop people from entering the legal profession

Our social mobility work to encourage young people from a range of backgrounds to consider a legal career includes the Street Law initiative, with 18 law students attending a training weekend in October to prepare them in delivering a series of sessions about the law in classrooms.

We hosted 11 engagement events for Lawscot Foundation students. The Foundation is our social mobility charity which helps support talented young people from less advantaged students through their legal studies at university. During 2023-24 the Lawscot Foundation received 57 applications. 10 students were selected for full support, which includes a bursary, mentoring and career development opportunities. A further 11 students will receive partial support which involves mentoring and career development support.

This year the Lawscot Foundation trustees engaged a design agency to develop refreshed branding. Now approved, this will be implemented in 2024-25.

Other work in this area saw us renew our partnership with Rare contextual recruitment, with three firms taking a combined total of 18 trainees.

We revived our social mobility network which is due to meet in February 2025. We continued our outreach work with schools and colleges, with our college careers event attracting 50 attendees.  Our summer school attracted 330 registrations from throughout Scotland, with attendance each day between 85 and 100 pupils. We also hosted another successful Donald Dewar Memorial Debating Tournament Debate competition, with 64 teams in the first round and a successful final held in June 2024. 

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