The society’s Access to Justice Committee stood down in a mass protest late yesterday after its convener, prominent solicitor Mike Dailly, accused the chief executive of the Scottish Legal Aid Board (Slab), Lyndsay Montgomery, of leaning on the society to have him silenced.
The committee has led criticism of Mr Montgomery and Slab as Scotland’s lawyers squabble over who should take the brunt of millions of pounds in cuts to the legal aid budget.
Mr Dailly, in a resignation letter, said Slab had asked the society to have the committee “reined in and controlled”.
This was immediately denied by both Slab and the society. The mass resignations come less than a week after another high-profile Glasgow solicitor, John McGovern, like Mr Dailly, resigned from the society’s ruling council.
Both are members of the Glasgow Bar Association which, as The Herald revealed a week ago, is exploring legal ways to break up with the Edinburgh-based society, which both regulates and represents solicitors.
The Access to Justice Committee last year called for Slab to be scrapped. This, Mr Dailly yesterday claimed, prompted a furious response from Mr Montgomery, who phoned him to say solicitors were “useless and unable to count”. In the letter to Jamie Millar, the Law Society’s president, Mr Dailly said: “It was an intolerant and quite inappropriate call from a senior Scottish public servant.”
The solicitor, who heads the not-for-profit Govan Law Centre, believes the Law Society took sides with Slab and Mr Montgomery, and not its own committee. He said the society responded to the criticism by imposing a “gagging order” on him and his committee.
Mr Dailly claimed Mr Millar said council members were concerned about the committee’s attacks on the legal aid board. Mr Dailly added in the letter: “I find it deeply troubling that the Council of the Law Society of Scotland is incapable of standing up for free speech and open public debate on matters of importance to the Scottish public and the Scottish legal profession. Particularly, as this is a primary statutory function of the society.”
A spokeswoman for The Law Society last night confirmed that “a number of council members had expressed concern over the work of the committee”. Their main worry, she said, was that Mr Dailly had failed to answer to the ruling council for three successive monthly council meetings. They requested that he appear before a meeting next month. She said: “We are sorry that Mike has now chosen to resign from council, rather than allowing council members to discuss these matters with him directly”
Paul McBride QC, a member of Slab’s board, last night rubbished Mr Dailly’s claims that Mr Montgomery or anybody else from the legal aid quango was behind the gagging order. He said Mr Daillywas trying to “make a martyr of himself”.
A spokesman for Slab said: “We are disappointed that Mr Dailly has chosen to make misleading and personally offensive remarks.” He said the board had acted appropriately and there had been no undue influence on the Law Society.”
