Law Society AGM signs off on payments to Council members

Members of the Law Society’s near 100-strong governing Council are to be remunerated directly for the first time and will also receive significant sums in back pay.

This follows overwhelming approval for a motion sanctioning the necessary byelaw changes at today’s annual meeting of the Society. Over 93% of members who voted backed the payments. Council members were advised not to vote due to a conflict of interest.

The payments were recommended by a Council working group set up last year following the removal of a tax break by HMRC. Until February 2023, Council members could claim an annual expense allowance (AEA) which latterly totalled about £1,640, plus additional out-of-pocket expenses from the Society on top. The AEA was seen as a useful, tax-free means of enabling Council members to recoup spending on items essential to the role, such as laptops and broadband.

From March 2023, the AEA was discontinued. Since then payments to Council members have been limited to expenses alone.

In July, Council endorsed the group’s conclusion that the ‘obligations and expectations’ of a Council member mean some solicitors - in particular junior and in-house lawyers - may feel unable to stand for election without  compensatin. The group recommended that Council members should receive a payment through the Society’s payroll in addition to expenses. The amount will be set by the Law Society Board’s People and Remuneration Committee.

While the committee deliberates, Council members will get an uprated sum equivalent to the former allowance, amounting to £2,050 each. They are also set to receive a one-off retrospective payment equivalent to the sum they would have received had the AEA not ceased in February 2023. That will cost the Society nearly £500,000 if all 97 Council members claim their back pay.

Other elected or appointed roles in the Society’s governance structure, notably committee members, who were eligible for the discontinued AEA, are not eligible for the new payments.  Today’s AGM heard calls for committee members to be paid too, but no decision has been made on exactly how their contributions should be recognised.

The AGM saw criminal defence veteran Richard Atkinson of Kent firm Tuckers succeed corporate lawyer Nick Emmerson as Law Society president.

It also featured a farewell address from Carolyn Kirby, who has stepped down as a Council member. Elected to represent Mid and West Wales in 1999, Kirby served as the Law Society’s first woman president in 2002-03.

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