Fédération des barreaux d’Europe
Rapports nationaux sur le financement des Barreaux en tant que prestataires des services, présentés aux Rencontres de Barcelone en 2002, organisés par l´Ordre des Avocats de Barcelone avec la FBE.
Ian KELCY
Ladies and Gentlemen, can I firstly say what an honour and privilege it is to be in this wonderful city of Barcelona and to have the opportunity to address you on the funding of Bar Associations. Can I say at the outset that I have no easy solution to the problem that funding provides. I am the President of Bristol Law Society and we currently have approximately 1,200 members. Bristol Law Society is the oldest Law Society in the country, in fact it is older than the National Law Society of England and Wales. It was founded in 1770. The founding members of the Society had an easy solution to the funding of their organisation – they all met in a local beerhouse/inn and anyone who arrived after 9.00 pm had a financial fine imposed upon them. That fine was then placed in an account which at the end of the year paid for the dinner for all the members. If only life were that easy today ! I regret to say we do not meet in a local beerhouse !
Bristol Law Society employs seven people and our main methods of fundraising are as follows. We firstly run an Employment Registry – through this registry members can register for jobs with local firms who are also members of the Society. They pay an introduction/placement fee, which is 9% of the first years salary. This is in fact considerably less than competing commercial enterprises which in the UK currently charge something in the region of 20-22%. We therefore justifiably feel that although this is revenue producing arm of the Society it is also a means of providing a very good service for Society members, they have the benefit of being able to seek placements through a professional employment agency, staffed by people who have a great depth of understanding and knowledge of local firms and the local legal scene. This enables them to look for successful placements rather than merely to seek placements that will produce a quick income, as many of the commercial agencies tend to do. There is a great advantage for employees as well, in that they can seek and obtain impartial advice from the Employment Consultants that the Society employs.
We have also raised funds in the conventional way, by obtaining subscriptions from members. Those subscriptions are graduated according to how many years the lawyer has been qualified and to what level of seniority he or she has reached within their firm (for example, the subscription for partners in Bristol Law Society is £85, whereas for a lawyer who is newly qualified within the first year of qualification the subscription is free). The reason why we provide free subscription for lawyers immediately after qualification is to (a) introduce them to the Society at no charge in the hope that they will remain as members thereafter. Retired lawyers pay nominal fee, those in the first three years of qualification pay less than those beyond three years qualification.
We have considered but have rejected it in Bristol the possibility of having a corporate rate for all members of firms. I have however to admit that we have found the mathematical formula to try and produce a just and equitable rate and yet ensure that the Society does not suffer a reduction in subscription beyond our capacity – we are after all lawyers not mathematicians.
Bristol is a city with a population of approximately ½ million and I suppose the total number of lawyers within the catchment area would be approximately 2,700 – 3,000 – we are therefore continually seeking to increase our membership and therefore increase the subscription level. We have increased our membership by approximately 20% over the past three years and it is the first time this year that we have introduced a free membership for those newly qualified lawyers. We are hoping that will increase the membership yet further.
The third method of funding our organisation is by running courses. In England and Wales all lawyers have to undergo continuing professional development – for solicitors in the UK this means that each year they have to have 18 hours of CPD. As a means of fundraising, we have been running courses for members in the Bristol area for a number of years – we charge a fee for attending those courses and that is an effective income generating arm of the Society. In Bristol we are currently running approximately 70 courses per annum and members are able to attend those courses at a reduced fee, compared to non members. There is therefore a distinct advantage to membership, in that in general terms you can gain your subscription fee back by attending just two courses. The courses we run cover all the disciplines of law so that our membership should be able to find courses to suit their particular fields of law. We invite and pay for speakers out of the income generated and we would estimate that in general we would make a profit of between 30 and 40% on our courses. Three members of staff are dedicated to running courses and each year we prepare a brochure setting out the courses to be run for the coming year. We again have to compete with commercial course providers but fortunately at present their rates seem considerably higher than the ones we are able to provide for our members but as with all things the market is becoming more and more competitive and we have to look at ways of reducing or minimising costs on a yearly basis. Many of the speakers on courses are members of the Society themselves, who have particular areas of skill and expertise in the fields in which they lecture.
We also generate an income earning arm from our librarian who provides a research facility within the library. We have computerised research facility that can produce law reports on particular topics – this facility is available to members, again at a reduced rate. The advantage of this is that as a Society we can afford to meet the subscription charged by the legal information service provider – this would normally only be a cost that the major law firms could afford. However as the Society meets the subscription it does mean that the smaller firms can benefit by using the Society’s research facilities and paying for it on a pay as you go basis. Whilst this is not a major income producing arm for the Society it does provide a small degree of income generation which helps to offset the cost of running the library which, with the exception of salaries, is probably our greatest cost. We spend annually on our library approximately 100,000 Euros or £65,000. Whilst we may not be part of the European Monetary System yet, we are learning to convert into Euros.
As you will gather from the above, the only real guaranteed source of income is derived from subscriptions. It is for that reason that we are anxious to try and build upon our subscription base so as to ensure that we can always meet the core expenditure of the Society. The income we derive from our Employment Registry is a variable income depending upon the strengths or weaknesses of the employment market at any given time. At the given time, particularly after September 11th, the employment market within legal firms in the UK is not strong. We are hopeful that it will improve but we have found that a number of firms have in recent months been somewhat cautious when it comes to expansion and the taking on of new staff.
We are actively looking at whether we can increase our income from the library and research services that the Society currently offers. The difficulty with this is that to increase such services we would probably have to consider the appointment of another member of staff and it is therefore a balancing exercise to ascertain whether any increased revenue derived from such a source would be offset by the increased salaries payable.
So far as membership of the Society is concerned, it is not compulsory. We try to persuade local solicitors that it is beneficial to be members of the Society as we have a reputation for being a strong lobbying group and ensuring that our politicians know and understand that strength of feeling amongst lawyers, particularly in the current environment where so often we see the rights of individuals at great risk of being eroded.
I certainly believe in strong and independent Law Societies and Bar Organisation who can speak with one voice and maintain democracy. Any government that does not respect and give due consideration to its legal framework and to the independence of the legal professional is in my view undemocratic.
I wish I could say that there were a simple solution to the funding of local Bar Organisations – there is not. Much of the funding that we are able to generate comes from the goodwill of members, the hard work of some members and the dedicated and loyal staff that we are fortunate enough to employ. If our members do not pay their subscriptions, they lose their right to membership and the right to the services the Society provides and to the concessions on fees. I firmly believe that individual lawyers should be prepared to pay their subscriptions and fees, either themselves or through their companies, in that way local Bar Organisations can maintain their independence and their integrity.
Maurizio DE TILLA
Festividad de Sant Raimon de Penyafort
encuentros de Barcelona
Il.lustre Col.legi d’Advocats de Barcelona
Federaciòn de los Colegios de Abogados de Europa (FBE)
Barcelona, 2 de febrero de 2002