Established

1973. The group was initially known as the Public Service and Commerce Group, but changed its name in 2000 to the In-house Lawyers Group (ILG).

Current Leadership

The organisation is chaired by Janet Hood, head of the Scottish arm of the British Institute of Innkeeping. Ms Hood is supported in the day-to-day management of the group by vice-chairman Colin Anderson, Legal Manager at Standard Life Assurance Limited, and Tricia Sim, the ILG's full-time administrator.

The ILG is run by a committee which, in addition to Ms Hood and Mr Anderson, currently comprises 13 members. Members are elected, and serve a three-year term. The committee's composition is intended to reflect the Scotland's diverse in-house legal community, and currently includes members from business, industry, local government, the church, the procurator fiscal service and the banking community. In theory, the ILG committee can comprise up to 18 members. Four members of the committee sit on The Law Society of Scotland's Council.
 

Membership

The ILG currently comprises around 2,600 members - a quarter of the Scottish legal profession.

Status

The ILG is part of, but is constitutionally separate from, the Law Society of Scotland. All members of the ILG must be members of The Law Society of Scotland. For the interest of the group and to inform other members, in-house lawyers sit on a number of the Law Society of Scotland's internal committees.

As practising solicitors, members of the ILG have full equality with their private practice counterparts - including the right to appear in court and claim legal professional privilege. The one major difference between in-house lawyers and their law firm equivalent is that in-house lawyers are not required to contribute to the Law Society's professional indemnity master policy or the guarantee fund. "In-house lawyers don't deal with external clients, so their professional indemnity insurance is typically covered by their employer's general insurance policies," explains Janet Hood.

International Links

Although no longer a member of the European Company Lawyers' Association, the ILG maintains informal links with the other in-house lawyers' groups across the EU. At present, the most significant international link is with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association - although the relationship between the two bodies remains on a largely informal basis.

Within the United Kingdom, the ILG enjoys cordial relations with the Faculty of Advocates, which represents Scotland's self-employed advocate community, the Solicitors in Local Government - England and Wales, the Local Authority Solicitors Bar Association - Ireland, and the Commerce & Industry Group in England & Wales.

Benefits of membership

Perhaps the more significant benefit of joining the ILG is the large amount of continuous professional development (CPD) courses it provides. Each year, the ILG offers at least 32 hours of free CPD training. Many of these training sessions will be provided by law firms, but others will include speakers from key government regulators or industry representatives.

Because of the geographical spread of its members, the ILG has pioneered the widespread use of video conferencing to deliver its CPD education programme. "A typical training session will include video links to up to ten remote locations," says Janet Hood. "This initiative has been very well received. We typically require at least 10 people to attend a location in order for a video link to be viable, but we have had fewer participants on some occasions."

In addition to the CPD programme the ILG also produces a regular e-newsletter, and 3-4 training sessions per year on "soft skills" issues.

Besides its education role, the ILG also performs an important social and networking opportunity. At the end of its annual general meeting, the group organises a grand dinner for its members, which is typically attended by around 250 guests.

Current Hot Topics

"In 2007, the Scottish Parliament passed the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act. This Act created a new, independent, Legal Complaints Commission, to handle complaints against Scottish solicitors," says Ms Hood.

"The Commission is funded by an annual levy on all Scottish lawyers. Working with Philip Yelland, Director of Regulation Law Society of Scotland, we put a proposal to the Law Society's council for a two-thirds reduction in the levy paid by IHG members - and it agreed. Because our members work in-house solely for their employer, they are unlikely to receive complaints from third parties on the quality of their service."

"At its AGM, The Law Society of Scotland widely debated the issue of Alternative Business Structures, and agreed to explore issues relating to this matter. Whatever the eventual outcome of the Society's deliberations, I am sure we will soon be working in a world few of us recognise, and where providers of legal services are subject to differing regulatory regimes than they are today."