The Law Society has confirmed that it broadly supports the conclusions of the Thomson review into rights of audience, but has added that it opposes removing investigation of conduct complaints from either the Society or the Faculty of Advocates.

“We have broadly welcomed the draft report. We are particularly pleased to see Mr Thomson’s recommendations on training and qualification which would see the introduction of a single qualification for those who would appear in Scotland’s higher courts and a formal reaccreditation process, although we would favour doing this over a five-year period rather than every three years, which would have a bigger impact on resources. We are also in favour of having a common code of conduct; and a single discipline tribunal for misconduct issues,” said Bruce Ritchie, Director of Professional Practice at the Society.

“However there are some issues in the recommendations which we have raised in our response to Mr Thomson, including the Rule which requires all solicitor advocates to advise clients of the advantages and disadvantages of instructing a solicitor advocate or an advocate, while there is no such rule for the advocates. As we have said previously, we would want to see this rule scrapped.

“We also believe that all conduct complaints should be dealt with by the professional bodies, while the SLCC continues to act as the gateway body for all legal complaints.” 

The Law Society also agreed with Dean of the Faculty of Advocates Richard Keen that the use of the term "pleader" to describe counsel, which is used heavily in the report, be dropped.

“There has also been some debate over how to refer to those in the higher courts. We would prefer the term ‘counsel’, which already exists and belongs to both branches of the profession, rather than ‘pleaders’, which personally I think is an ugly word, and ‘senior counsel’ for QCs," he said.