Taxation without representation – would you pay for the Law Society to represent you?

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From court fee hikes to a mooted City law tax to legal aid cuts, the profession’s relationship with government is at a low ebb. With the Law Society’s fundraising powers under threat, is it time for a new trade union?

It was the most contentious attack on City lawyers in recent memory. A proposal by incoming justice secretary Michael Gove to tax top law firms to fund the criminal courts acted as a rallying cry to the usually placid commercial profession. But it wasn’t the Law Society, which receives £35m a year to represent the profession in England and Wales, leading the fight. Opposition was mounted by the firms themselves and a tiny body operating on nearly a hundredth of the Law Society’s budget.

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Gove’s City levy kicked into long-grass amid Treasury opposition

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A tax on City lawyers floated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to subsidise the criminal court system has been effectively abandoned amid Treasury opposition, according to senior City sources.

The levy was floated by the MoJ in October last year as a means to replace revenue generated from a controversial court charge on convicted criminals that was supposed to bring in £65m to £90m annually.

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‘A dangerous sleight of hand’: Concerns changes to Snooper’s Charter still a risk to legal privilege

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After a new draft was released yesterday (1 March), there are growing concerns from the legal profession that the Investigatory Powers Bill will still fail to protect legal privilege, encroaching on lawyers’ ability to speak confidentially with clients. Both the Law Society and the Bar Council are urging the government to take their time with the legislation.

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Guest post: Legal lobby turf wars – what is the Law Society doing for you?

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It is not a massive exaggeration to say that the Law Society will be fighting for its existence in the months to come. The government’s intention to make the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) entirely independent from the society will inevitably raise the question of whether what will then be purely a representative body should still be able to take a slice of the fees that solicitors pay for regulation.

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Guest post: The great tax debate – towards business accountability

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This is the third in a series of pieces exploring what the Labour Centre might offer to the electorate. The first, sketching out some of the broader ideas, can be seen here. The second, which advances some specific policies to reshape the labour market to support self-employment and improve competition, can be seen here.

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News in brief – February 2016

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CASES AGAINST LAW FIRMS DOWN

Figures collated by RPC suggest the post-financial crisis wave of professional negligence claims against law firms has passed. High Court cases against firms were down 47% last year. While the number of cases spiked by 192% to 418 for the year 2013-14, the number of actions against solicitors for the 12 months to 30 June 2015 is lower at 221.

 

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Guest post: Do companies have a duty to avoid taxes?

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Here’s a transaction that did the rounds some years ago.

If I wanted some foreign exchange in the future I could enter into a contract with a bank by which it would sell me some. Assume that, in order to get a bank to promise to give me $2bn in twelve months, I had to promise to give it £1.5bn in twelve months.

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