From the President's desk: Six Nations, ICE, community and the Juristenball

Law Society of Scotland President Patricia Thom considers the importance of community, rugby, security and the Juristenball.

I’m sure I am not the only one who has welcomed the distraction of both the Winter Olympic Games and Six Nations Rugby over these dreich February days. Both are events that I would suggest, quite apart from providing us with exciting entertainment, also promote community cohesion and the beauty of teamwork.

When I first moved from the Northwest Territories of Canada to Melrose some 30 odd years ago, I didn’t know rugby existed. But, having produced three Borders children and having married a man obsessed with rugby, I soon became a convert. I wandered into town the other day and was struck by the activity on both sides of the street, children being coached by their parents in either football or rugby on one side and a very animated rugby game being played on the Greenyards sports ground on the other. It felt like the whole town was involved. I think as a society we need to ensure that these cultural and sporting activities continue to be available to all and don’t become prohibitively expensive.

Community and collective good are one thing, but our individual freedoms are just as valuable. I recently travelled to Vienna on behalf of the Society to attend the European President’s Conference, involving bars and legal associations from across the continent. The theme this year was “Freedom versus security: the Rule of Law under the strain of modern crime”. Intriguingly most of the speakers were either from the prosecution offices, the police offices, journalists or researchers and they all seemed to focus on the need for security as opposed to protecting our individual freedoms.

Security is obviously important to maintain order and protect citizens, and the perspectives of these speakers painted a very frightening picture of modern crime. By the same token, freedom is a fundamental right and is the cornerstone of our democratic society and we need to ensure that too much emphasis on security doesn’t erode our liberties and foster mistrust. The shocking recent events in Minnesota and the clash between ICE in the name of security and those determined to preserve their fundamental freedoms is, I would suggest, a perfect example of how difficult it is to strike the right balance between the two. As lawyers we continue to have a responsibility to ensure that right balance is there.

While at the conference, Ken Dalling – a fellow Law Society Council member and past president – and I were guests at the Juristenball, which has a history stretching back more than 200 years. It was quite an event. There were apparently 6,000 attendees, all connected in some way to the legal profession. Before the actual ball we were treated to a performance of Viennese waltzing by I would say almost 100 young people. It was quite beautiful and reminded me of the ceilidh dancing, albeit on a much smaller scale, at the end of each of the Borders Common Riding weeks. Having had a son who spent a couple of years as the Principle for our town in those common ridings, I am very aware of how cohesive they can be in bringing the town and the Borders as whole together and I did wonder whether the same was true in preparation for this performance at the Juristenball.

Another important part of community is ensuring that people aren’t excluded, and that goes for our profession as well. So, I’m pleased to note that the Lawscot Foundation is marking its 10th anniversary this year. In that time, it has provided support to more than 100 law students from less privileged backgrounds.

We’ve also recently launched the Lawscot Social Mobility Forum, which is aimed at targeting poverty, class and social barriers that prevent prospective and current lawyers from accessing support and opportunities.