The Law Society referendum on whether the profession should support ABS has closed with a slim majority backing the proposals ahead of the SGM next week.

2,245 voted in favour of the introduction of alternative business structures, as long as there are appropriate safeguards, while 2,221 voted against.  Some 4,466 solicitors voted, a representing 43% of the Society’s membership, the biggest turnout in the Society’s history.

Ian Smart acknowledged that the lack of a clear majority to provide a mandate to pursue the vexed ABS policy would require the Society to work with what he called the “wider fringes” to find a united way forward.

“The narrowness of the result clearly illustrates just how the issue has brought out widely divergent views across the profession,” he said.

“While there have been a few heated remarks on the wider fringes of the debate, I believe that the vast majority of solicitors still wish to try and find a united way forward. These results will therefore inform the ongoing policy debate which will also continue both in private and reconvened special general meeting later this month.

“There are, I believe, already areas of consensus on some models of ABS but more work still requires to be done to find an overall solution to what is, undoubtedly, one of the most important issues faced by the Society in my more than 30 years of professional life. Trying to find an agreement will continue to be the number one priority of all of us within the leadership of the Society."