New Law Society president Andrew Caplen speaks exclusively to John van der Luit-Drummond

Andrew Caplen's rise to the summit of Chancery Lane has been long and productive. He has been the Law Society Council member for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight since 2000, and he chaired the Law Society's Access to Justice Committee from 2008 until 2012. Caplen also chaired the Law Society's Management Board, was treasurer of the Law Society Group from 2010 until 2012 and co-chaired the Group's Business Oversight Board during its first year of operation.

Throughout his career Caplen has maintained a particular interest in access to justice, which began when he was an articled clerk at Abels in Southampton under the tutelage of the then senior partner John Griffin. It is clear that his induction into the world of pro bono and legal aid services has been ingrained in Caplen. He became a duty solicitor and remained one until becoming the Law Society's deputy vice-president two years ago. He has also co-authored the Society's Access to Justice Review and has written and spoken extensively on access to justice and legal aid issues.

Now, at the top of the Society's pyramid, Caplen's experience will be needed at a time when the next rounds of cuts to criminal legal aid look set to decimate the profession and restrict representation for some of the most vulnerable in our society.

In this exclusive interview with SJ's legal reporter, John van der Luit-Drummond, Caplen discusses what he hopes to achieve over the coming 12 months, what challenges currently face the solicitors profession, and how he wants to be remembered at the end of his presidency.

What made you want to become president of the Law Society?

I joined the profession because, like many lawyers, I believed in something called the 'rule of law', even though at the time I didn't really understand what it was. I haven't lost that  and I am passionate about this opportunity. I am not here for anything for myself; I am just trying to make a difference.

Now one month into the role, who have you turned to for advice?

You don't come into this role fresh. That is an advantage I perhaps have over the heads of other regulators. We have a really good staff here. One of the things I have been doing is update meetings with all of the heads of the business units. We also have the office holders and we work really closely as a team and have frequent meetings with the chief executive and other senior staff and council members where appropriate.

What is your working relationship with the other office-holders, Jonathan Smithers and Robert Bourns, like?

We've got a really good team together this year. We have scheduled weekly meetings, but it is very easy nowadays to organise telephone conferences so the reality is that we are talking all the time. The Society needs a strong office holder team; we have got different skills having come from different firm backgrounds, and it I will be my intention to speak frequently with as much consensus as we can.

What have you been doing during your first month?

I have been to see the big four societies: Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham. I have also been to see practitioners. We made a specific point to go to Wales as some forget that we are the Law Society of England and Wales. We want to engage with our members where they are, so we went to the Royal Wales Agricultural Society as a number of our members have trade stands there and had meetings with them there.

Have you been involved in the recruitment process for a new chief executive?

I am involved and we hope to be able to make an announcement shortly. It could be that we may have an interim chief executive for a short period. It is the sort of post that will attract a lot of interest and understandably so.

What do you expect the dynamic to be with the new chief executive and do you need someone in the mould of Des Hudson or somebody with different qualities?

I don't think you should ever look for someone identical to the person being replaced because you will always be disappointed. You have to come up with a job description and look for the best person to fit that role. When you have a change in this positon it is a good opportunity to review it. We will go for the best candidate.

What relationship do you expect to have with the other regulators?

I have been to see the Legal Services Board and I met with the SRA immediately before I became president. We are setting up monthly meetings with both the LSB and the SRA. I have also met with Elisabeth Davies of the Legal Services Consumer Panel and we will be meeting every three months. We are going to have a regular relationship and these meetings will be scheduled catch-ups.

This is largely my own initiative. Previously meetings tended to be more ad hoc, whereas I think it is helpful to have something regular in the diary. Of course, sometimes you can have regular meetings but cancel them because you have nothing to talk about. I still think it is important to have those meetings to make sure that there is something we can catch up on.

With regards to regulation, we have already discussed the recent SRA consultations. We still have some concerns over professional indemnity insurance and that is the most immediate issue on our radar.

Your focus over the coming 12 months is to improve access to justice in the wake of stringent legal aid cuts. How do you intend to do this?

There is a major question around access to justice. Legal aid is an important constituent part of that, but access to justice is not just legal aid. There are also the civil litigation reforms that have been taking place. On 8 September we are having an access to justice day. This is where we are going to launch our own campaign on access to justice, as we think that it is really important to get the message out there.

Also, people need to be able to get legal aid in domestic violence cases. Under the LASPO reforms it is not so easy for people to get legal aid, and we do think that that should be revisited. That will be a major push for us over the coming 12 months. But we are not just going to rush in. It will likely be closer to November or December when we have specifics.

We are also considering the prospect of going to East Africa in April or May of next year - towards the end of my presidency - with a view to visiting projects where are members are working at NGOs or on a pro bono basis on gender-based violence issues in that region.

We hope that our initiative will show that our members are acting in a way where we hope society will come to understand the value of lawyers. In almost all these types of cases the involvement of a lawyer is vital to ensure that justice is done, that people are protected, and that the perpetrators are brought to court.

We are in the process of collecting case studies, post the LASPO cuts. We have been accumulating evidence for some time and undertaking research and it will be part of the manifesto of legal issues that we put forward before the next election. It will be the case of continual pressure in the public domain and with politicians to explain that this is something that we do not think has been got right and needs to be looked at as a matter of urgency.

What other initiatives are you planning over the next 12 months?

We have had a number of other ideas put forward by our members and we need to go away and check the feasibility of what has been suggested and stress test some of our own ideas as well. We will probably be launching some more come November. But the issue of domestic violence and legal aid is one about which I think everyone agrees something should be done.

Your predecessor, Nicholas Fluck, faced some public criticism on legal aid. Are you ready to face the same from certain quarters?

I have learnt the importance of engaging with the whole of our profession in an appropriate way. At the end of the day it is the Ministry of Justice's decision on what they do on legal aid, but having been a solicitor dealing with that sort of practice, and a duty solicitor up until the time that I became the Law Society deputy vice president, I would like to think I have a fairly good understanding of the rightly held issues and concerns of our members.

What are your plans on diversity and inclusion within the profession?

What I have found interesting while doing firm visits over the last 12 months is that partners - even in City firms - are concerned about these issues. It is something that we want to take forward and is something that does concern me. Are we in danger of having a profession where some people, because of lack of resources, are excluded from entering the profession? It is not just the money side; it is also the gender side and the ethnicity side as well.

What is your opinion on the Junior Lawyers Division asking for minimum pay for trainees?

It is something that I benefitted from myself so I really do understand their concerns. But the question of minimum pay is a matter for the SRA and not the Law Society. I do think though that it is something I will need to speak to the Junior Lawyers Division about and figure out the best way I can assist them.

What big events have you got coming up in your calendar?

We have the one hundredth anniversary of the First World War. A number of solicitors and articled clerks were involved in that conflict and their names are displayed in the reading room of the Law Society. We will be making a short trip over to Belgium in September. We want to remember the members of the profession who lost their lives.

We also have the Global Law Summit from 23 to 25 February 2015 to showcase English and Welsh legal services. We hope that it will be the biggest gathering of international lawyers ever and will showcase London as a dispute resolution centre, the quality of our lawyers, and the quality of our legal system.

It will also be 800 years since Magna Carta and we will be marking the anniversary in a big way. The American Bar Association will be coming over in force because, for Americans, Magna Carta is more important is seems than for us. It is regarded as one of their fundamental constitutional documents.

There is also the Commonwealth Law Conference that will be held in Glasgow and hosted by the Law Society of Scotland and I anticipate that we will have some form of involvement there too.

Then, of course, there is the general election campaign. We will be launching our own campaign to highlight various justice issues that the incoming administration should consider and my responsibility will be to meet with as many politicians as I can.

Traditionally, solicitors have sold their time by way of fees or in teaching CPD. Are we now moving away from a time based approach for solicitors fees?

There has been a general drive by people who want a fixed price for a job. Some people are now marketing their services that way to consumers. So there is a growing move away from hourly based to a fixed price. Consumers want to know what the final price will be.

There is now greater transparency in law, with consumers being able search for answers to legal queries online. Is this a danger for traditional practices?

There is a place for internet advice and more firms are going down that avenue, but there will continue to be a place for people who want a personal service, a bespoke legal service, where people will want to sit down with the papers and talk through them and have bespoke advice. The internet will provide a solution to some people's problems and a bespoke service will offer solutions to others.

What is your opinion on Alternative Business Structures and multidisciplinary practices?

Lawyers are trained in the law. For a lot of lawyers that is all they want to do. Sometimes the management side can be better given to other people. It depends on the quality of the individual; sometimes it is right to bring somebody else in who has experience in management or marketing or finance. You might want to give them an incentive and an ABS provides that opportunity.

Looking forward, how will you want to be remembered in 12 months time?

As somebody who did their best for the profession, for the Law Society, and for justice. SJ

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John van der Luit-Drummond is a legal reporter for Solicitors Journal

john.vanderluit@solicitorsjournal.co.uk