Law Society calls on Attorney General to open up civil panels to solicitors

Membership of the Attorney General’s panels of junior counsel who undertake civil, EU and international work for all government departments should be opened up more effectively to solicitors with higher rights, the Law Society has said.

The Attorney General runs three London panels, a regional panel and a Public International Panel (PIL) for this work. However, only the PIL has any solicitor members – four solicitor advocates including one solicitor QC.

The Law Society noted that all the accompanying information and documentation for the panels had been written with barristers in mind.

Chancery Lane highlighted an indication in the Government’s consultation that there were frequently availability and capacity issues across the regional panel, with not enough counsel to take on work.

In a letter to the Attorney General’s Office, Sophia Adams Bhatti, Director of Legal & Regulatory Policy at the Law Society, said: “We suggest that opening up the regional panel to solicitor advocates with higher rights and the appropriate level of experience could go some way to reinvigorating the panel and towards address the problem of capacity.”

Adams Bhatti said the Law Society’s interest was in securing a discussion about opening up the London and regional panels to solicitors; in particular the appropriate criteria for solicitor applicants and the modifications that could be made to the application process to make it more relevant to solicitors.

“If that could be achieved in time for the 2018 competition, we would be very willing to assist with the appropriate publicity,” she added.