Having held the office of president of the Law Society of England and Wales for three weeks now, I am delighted to give my first monthly update to the profession. This month, I want to look at two significant problems facing the profession – professional indemnity insurance (PII) and legal aid contracts – and explain my vision for how the Law Society can rise to the challenge of fighting the corner of all solicitors.

We are all aware that the past two years have been very difficult when it comes to PII renewal. Evidence from last year’s renewal season suggests that roughly two-thirds of firms reported premium increases on the previous year. In addition, those who experienced significant difficulties, such as grossly inflated premiums or those who were unable to achieve coverage at all, were largely sole practitioners and small firms. As a result, black and ethnic minority solicitors were disproportionately affected. We know that 2010 is likely to be another difficult year and expect overall premium levels to rise to cover the increasing number and cost of claims.

Over the past two years, the Law Society has been doing all that it can to assist the Solicitors Regulation Authority in its work to reform the PII system so that it helps solicitors and protects the public. We will continue to work with both the SRA and the insurers to try to resolve the root cause of the problem, and also to put in place safeguards for those affected.

The Law Society has also worked hard on behalf of the profession to secure the recent transfer of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) run-off claims-handling function to Vision Underwriting Limited (Vision). This step secures an economic and viable long-term solution for the handling of the run-off of SIF claims. We also welcome Vision’s recent announcement of its intention to offer PII to law firms of up to five partners in size.

More generally, we provide a range of PII support services to help firms to maximise their chances of finding cover at reasonable cost. We have revised our PII practice note on the website – please see our June update. This explains that, although there is no easy solution on PII, firms can best aid their chances by beginning the renewal process early.

We have also just published our latest edition of the Society’s PII market intelligence publication Insurance Matters, which provides the latest information on the PII market. We will be opening our dedicated PII helpline later this year to provide support to those solicitors who are having difficulties. I encourage all firms to make use of all our services and advice.

Legal aidAs a solicitor with a background in legal aid, I am acutely aware that it should be considered an extremely important frontline service. Legal aid should never be undervalued for the contribution it makes to society. The Law Society and I are very much committed to working as hard as we can with our members to develop ideas as to how we can ensure that legal aid can be sustained in the long term. Please do take the time to read about our access to justice review.

I was very much disappointed by the recent announcement on family and social care contract awards. I am saddened to see that a large number of existing family providers have not been offered new contracts. The scale of refusals is far greater than the Law Society had anticipated, and indeed the Legal Services Commission had predicted.

The Law Society understands that many of our members have been successful in their bids, but we cannot as the voice of the profession fail to act on what we see as the unfair consequences on current and future clients. Suddenly thousands of clients are going to find that their solicitor is no longer able to undertake legal aid work, and those clients may be forced to find new lawyers in the middle of their cases. New clients will also be adversely affected as they struggle to access advice under legal aid.

As the spokesperson for the profession, I have written to legal aid minister Jonathan Djanogly to express my serious concerns and to request an urgent review of the tender results and their effect on legal aid provision. I have asked him to give consideration as to whether the market can cope with this amount of restructuring in the short time before the new contracts start in October.

I also want to equip our members whose bids were not successful, to speak to their local MPs about their individual cases. The Law Society has therefore created a briefing on how members can join in the lobbying effort, which can be found on our website, entitled Briefing your MP. By lobbying together, we make a stronger case.

The Law Society is also urgently seeking legal advice on the social welfare and family law tender results. But even if successful, legal action will not solve the immediate problems of those who have been unsuccessful.

Both of these issues highlight one of the major themes of my presidency. I believe that, in the current climate, professional solidarity and joint working with our stakeholders have never been more important.

Many of us became lawyers because we believed that we could make a positive contribution to the lives of our clients, and that our role had an important place in society. Nowhere is this more obviously demonstrated than by those who persevered in legal aid. I qualified in 1994 and at that stage many firms were already deciding that the reducing levels of pay, increasing bureaucracy and the uncertainty generated by repeated changes in policy direction meant that – very reluctantly – they could no longer continue in legal aid. Those that chose to remain despite the obstacles put in their path, and, just as importantly, their clients, surely deserve our support now.

Linda Lee is president of the Law Society