Members of the Law Society’s near 100-strong governing Council will be paid directly for the first time if solicitors ratify a motion to be heard at Chancery Lane’s October AGM. They also stand to receive one-off payments totalling thousands of pounds in back pay.
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.
The working group, comprising six Council members and chaired by the vice president, was convened to consider ways to ‘recognise the contribution of Council members’ and other members holding elected or appointed roles.
In July this year, the 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 some form of financial compensation’. The group recommended that Council members should receive a payment through the Society’s payroll in addition to reimbursement of their direct expenses. The amount would be set by the Law Society Board’s People and Remuneration Committee.
Until that committee determines an appropriate sum, and if the AGM motion is passed, Council members will be paid an uprated sum equivalent to the former allowance, amounting to £2,050 each. They would also 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. The payments would come on top of any expenses (travel/accommodation) claims made in the meantime.
Payments to the three office-holders – president, vice president, and deputy vice president – would not change. They would continue to be set by reference to the salary of a district judge.
Other elected or appointed roles in the Society governance structure, notably committee members, who were eligible for the discontinued AEA would not be eligible for the new payments. They would receive recognition through the Society’s Get Involved strategy, though it has yet to be determined what tangible form such recognition might take.
A Law Society spokesperson said: ‘The Law Society’s council has proposed a new system of a nominal allowance to council members that replaces the previous one. This new system will be presented for ratification by the Law Society’s members at the upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 9 October 2024.’
