Godot before ABS in Scotland?
Will Godot turn up before Alternative Business Structures (ABS) in Scotland?
Paul Rogerson, Editor in Chief of The Law Society [of England & Wales] Gazette, thinks this is highly likely. He sets out his thoughts in the leader column of this week’s Digital edition under the heading ‘Bordering on farce‘.
It was, of course, Paul Rogerson who suggested in 2016 that ABSs in Scotland were rarer than Nessie.
Godot before ABS
Nine years later, and the analogy is with Godot rather than Nessie:
Godot himself will fetch up in Princes and Sauchiehall streets before alternative business structures arrive.
Rogerson is scathing of The Law Society of Scotland’s relationship with the Scottish Parliament:
I have not encountered an organisation with more lobbying clout than the Law Society of Scotland. In fact, it seems to me that the venerable Edinburgh institution has the Holyrood legislature just where it wants it.
This, he says, is particularly so in how they managed to repulse any prospect of a fully independent regulator for lawyers in Scotland as recommended by the Roberton Review.
Condescension, contempt and collusion
Rogerson reminisces of his time working at the Glasgow Herald with, now first minister, John Swinney, exposing:
condescension, contempt and collusion manifested in behaviours toward clients who submitted ostensibly legitimate complaints.
When, he says:
The Society remained adamant
Impressive, or notorious, and artful
Rogerson describes the blocks, by the Law Society of Scotland, on ABS as:
impressive – or notorious
and also as a display of:
artfulness
Limited Interest?
The main reason, cited by the Law Society of Scotland, for their latest two year freeze on ABS, is the “limited interest” expressed by their members. Rogerson, usefully, reminds us that in 2012:
the Society’s own executive director of regulation reported that increasing numbers of Scottish firms had been contacting the Society to ask about becoming a licensed provider. He went on to warn, however, that new regulations enabling them to convert remained ‘some way off’.
Rogerson concludes
‘Some way off’ indeed. The good director long since carried his talent for understatement into retirement.
ABS before Godot
Solicitors in Scotland are, understandably, running out of patience with this. Many are thinking they will, like the ‘good director’, be retired before ABS sees the light of day in Scotland.
The ‘artfulness’ by the Law Society of Scotland in dodging ABS may be coming to an end. They have been caught red handed (and should now be red faced) with excuses that cannot withstand any proper scrutiny.
We cannot wait any longer for Godot ABS.
Images Credit: Brian Cox and Bill Paterson in Waiting for Godot at The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh – September 2015. Photos: Alan McCredie
