SOLICITORS BILL. (Hansard, 4 May 1939)

§ LORD WRIGHT
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be read a second time. It is one of those Bills which come before this House in order to enable the Law Society, as the Registrar of Solicitors, to meet difficulties which it realises from time to time in its attempts to exercise discipline over its members. Unfortunately, as most of us observe, solicitors are sometimes guilty of misconduct, and in particular are guilty of defalcations, appropriating to their own purposes the moneys of their clients. That is a mischief which the Law Society is constantly seeking to curtail and stop. Various remedies have been proposed, and under a recent Act, the Solicitors Act, 1933, the Law Society have been privileged to make rules for the keeping of accounts. In order to make these rules as compulsory as possible, and to see that they are observed, the Law Society want to add to the form of declaration which, under the existing Statute, a solicitor has to make if he seeks to obtain renewal of his practising certificate, a further declaration either that he has fulfilled the rules as to keeping of accounts or that he is exempt. That is Clause 1 and Clause 2. Clause 3 deals with registration, and Clause 4 is a matter of routine administration.
In Clause 5 the Law Society are asking Parliament to give them extra powers either to refuse a practising certificate or to grant it only on certain conditions because, as your Lordships know, it is the giving or refusing of an annual practicing 954 certificate which is one of the great methods of control that the Law Society have over members of the Society who are practising solicitors or who want to practise. Further heads are added dealing with bankruptcy, insolvency, failure to satisfy a judgment, and matters of that kind. Closely allied with that is Clause 6, which provides that if after a solicitor has got his practising certificate he becomes bankrupt, the practising certificate shall be suspended. Then there are other sections which deal with the effect of the suspension and its termination. Clause 8 deals with an abuse which the Law Society are anxious to stop. It refers to cases where a solicitor has been found committing conduct of which the Law Society disapprove so that it is undesirable in their opinion he should have an articled clerk. Clause 8 deals with that provision, and gives the Law Society powers in that respect.
Clause 10 is on rather a different footing because, whereas the other clauses are purely domestic, in that they deal only with members of the Law Society and the powers of the Law Society over them, this clause deals with people who are not members of the Law Society. They are a very limited class—namely, solicitors' clerks who are not qualified or admitted solicitors who have been found to have associated with qualified solicitors and used the qualified solicitors simply as covers so as to carry on under their name and aegis professional business, and in that way have instigated the solicitor, whom I might call the tame solicitor, to commit practices which lead to his being struck off the Rolls. What is sought in Clause 10 is that where there is a case of that sort the Law Society, through the Disciplinary Committee, may issue an order prohibiting any solicitor from employing such a person as his clerk. In these various sections there is provision for appeals to the Master of the Rolls and provision as to making rules for these appeals.
The remaining clauses of the Bill deal with constitutional matters—that is to say, the appointment of committees, an extended qualification for membership of the Law Society, an increase in the number of the Disciplinary Committee, and various other matters of that sort—for instance, the Disciplinary Committee may sit in two divisions. Finally, Clause 18 provides for the transfer of 955 certain discretionary powers from the Master of the Rolls, or in some cases the Lord Chief Justice, to the Law Society. I have discussed that matter with Sir Wilfrid Greene, the present Master of the Rolls, who approves of it and, speaking from my own experience as Master of the Rolls, I have no hesitation in regarding that as a very admirable measure, especially as under the clauses of the Bill to which I have referred there are a number of new matters on which appeals lie to the Master of the Rolls. The points which may arise, if they do arise on these provisions which are all matters of administrative detail, are more suitable for Committee than for discussion in the House, and if this Bill is read a second time by your Lordships I shall proceed to move that it be referred to a Joint Select Committee of both Houses. I beg to move.

§ LORD MANCROFT
My Lords, this is a useful Bill. I have only one point to make with which I shall deal very shortly. I will submit to your Lordships that it is a pivotal point, and, if it is not dealt with by the Committee which the noble and learned Lord has suggested so as to meet the position which I shall disclose, a great part of the usefulness of the Bill will disappear. Figures were given either in the other House or by some official body—I forget which, but certainly in the last two years—to the effect that in the majority of these unfortunate and regrettable cases, wherein solicitors have been convicted of late years in the criminal courts of fraudulent conversion of their clients' money, the solicitor has been a single partner practising without a partner or another principal in his own firm. That is to say, broadly, for the most part these solicitors who have been convicted have been carrying on private practice in which they were themselves the sole principal or partner.
There is nothing in this Bill to prevent a single solicitor setting up, at the start, on his own account in private practice without a partner. I bear in mind that there are great difficulties around this point. There are solicitors, as is well known to your Lordships, who are employed singly as town clerks, magi- 956 strates' clerks, clerks to local authorities, or to railways, insurance companies, or banks, and in some cases, I believe, these solicitors do, or may, also have a private practice outside their single official duties. For that reason I am quite unable myself to suggest wording for an additional clause to be added to this Bill to deal with single partnership solicitors. But I am sure it will not be beyond the skill of any Committee that the noble and learned Lord may suggest which will deal with this Bill, to draft a clause to prohibit a single solicitor from carrying on a private practice for private clients without, at the start, taking a partner, and, at the same time, to avoid the difficulties arising in cases of town clerks and solicitors of local authorities, or solicitors on the permanent staffs of railways, or insurance companies or banks. I also bear in mind another difficulty. A partner in a firm with two partners may die, or retire after a short period of partnership as well as after a long period of partnership, and so leave only one remaining partner. Such contingencies must be provided for. Experience has shown without doubt that solicitors who have had no partner are in the majority of those convicted of defalcations, consequently the protection that the Bill is designed to give to the public may be sterilised owing to this one cause, unless the Bill provides a remedy. I therefore make an appeal and express the hope that the noble and learned Lord will take into consideration the point which I have submitted to your Lordships when the clauses of this Bill are sent for consideration by a Committee.

§ LORD WRIGHT
My Lords, I can assure the noble Lord who has just spoken that his suggestions will receive the most careful consideration in Committee.

§ THE MARQUESS OF ZETLAND
I understand that my noble friend the Lord Chancellor, if he had not been called away, would have expressed his gratitude for the introduction of this Bill.

§ LORD WRIGHT
My Lords, I beg to move that it be resolved that it is desirable that the Bill be referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament.