Executive power
Legal executives will play a crucial role in the provision of legal aid, but partners must ensure it does not cross the line of exploitation, says Diane Burleigh
The announced cuts to the legal aid budget make for grim reading. The immediate response by the profession to dealing with a much-reduced budget and winning a tender from the LSC is to cut the costs of delivery of services. The suggestion is then made to me that legal executives will be sought after '“ the unspoken but slightly patronising assumption being that they are cheap labour.
I expect legal executives, who after all are lawyers, to be paid the going rate for the job. It may well be that the going rate is less than most solicitors might choose to work for. So be it. At the same time, I expect they, and our other members who work in legal aid firms in paralegal and support roles, will be in demand.
Why? Well, think of the value '“ a legal executive is a person who is a specialist in their field, trained and qualified into that specialism. No wonder there are few complaints or actions for negligence involving legal executives. And, with practicing certificate fees at under £300 a year, firms make immediate overhead savings on each one employed in the place of a solicitor.
With additional training, executives can exercise rights of audience in all cases in the magistrates' court, county court and family proceedings courts, adding value to their role and allowing a firm to use all of their advocates flexibly. This creates advantages not only to the client but to the bottom line, both of which make good business.
Other members of ILEX who are not legal executive lawyers also have role to play. Paralegals and trainee legal executives bring to a firm an ambitious nature, a capacity for hard work, and, depending on how well advanced in their studies they are, both academic and practical knowledge and experience. They will certainly have shown a willingness to study and improve their skills.
Quality control
The LSC has made it clear that they expect to contract on the whole with fewer but larger firms. Certainly with size comes a better ability to develop highly specialised teams delivering advice, and running cases. The opportunity will increase for firms to recruit and utilise staff in a targeted way, as well as develop career opportunities within firms.
Firms will have greater control over quality (which will remain important to the LSC) if they focus on developing their staff, as well as increase loyalty and commitment, and thereby improve productivity and retention rates. Training and development of existing staff, and recruitment with a view to development, is something all firms should be planning for.
Of course there will remain smaller, niche firms. These small firms already know the value of legal executives; a significant number of our members are employed in firms of five partners or less, although this is changing as the structure and type of legal services business also change.
Niche because they are highly specialist; they are efficient and cost effective because they have a narrow focus and do what they do very well. This suits the legal executive and their focus on a specialist area of practice. There is likely to be an increasing role for such firms particularly in delivering services in areas taken out of scope.
Not the only answer
There will be enormous pressure on firms to meet the needs of those who cannot afford to pay much if anything towards legal fees. Insurance is unlikely to cover everything '“ special educational needs, for example, a very technical area of law, in which cases often turn on extensive, and frequently contradictory, medical and other expert evidence.
Pro bono cannot be, and should not be, the only answer. Pro bono is part of being a lawyer; it is not the day job. Once again, legal executives and our other members have a crucial role to play as firms increase their efficiency and efficacy through the targeted use of appropriately qualified, highly specialist staff.
Our mantra at ILEX is 'the right level of person with the right level of qualification doing the right level of job'. ILEX and its members have been helping firms achieve this for almost 50 years.