SOLICITORS are facing the biggest organisational upheaval in their professional history with the break-up of the 165-year-old Law Society and its multimillion-pound empire.

The move could see the sale of half its headquarters at Chancery Lane, a prize asset, and the axing of the 105-strong council, as well as other cost-saving measures.

The functions of the society, the professional body for 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales, will be split and its complaints service hived off to a new, independent consumer-focused complaints board.

The society is also creating a regulatory arm, leaving a question mark over whether solicitors will be prepared to pay for the trade union functions.

The move has led to widespread debate about whether the Law Society will survive.

Solicitors in the big City firms have already revamped the City of London Law Society, with 34 firms signing up for a new “corporate” membership.

David McIntosh, chairman of the City of London Law Society, and senior partner at Davies Arnold Cooper, said that he expected the number to rise. “The City firms want us to adopt a proactive approach towards providing them with a tailored service to City law firms, while working in partnership with the national Law Society,” he said.

The changes have been prompted by legal reforms proposed by Sir David Clementi, which will be contained in a Legal Services Bill this year, but the Law Society has already embarked on reform in anticipation of the changes.

The Law Society will this month launch one of the biggest consultation exercises it has ever undertaken with all 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales. It is seen by some solicitors as an expensive, over-blown bureaucracy. Its council costs £575,000 a year to run and the society’s annual budget is now £124 million a year, including £35 million spent on complaints. There are 1,371 staff.

The Law Society’s £190,000-a-year job of chief executive, held at present by Janet Paraskeva, will be split into three but the three new appointees will be paid more than Ms Paraskeva in total.

Ms Paraskeva has just been appointed as First Civil Service Commissioner, a part-time post that she will start in May, leaving the Law Society at the end of the year. She welcomed the break-up.

“Establishing the independent Regulation and Consumer Complaints Boards will build on the Society’s excellent work in those areas and give consumers the confidence they rightly expect from the regulatory and complaints handling system,” she said.

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