The Law Society says regulation is stifling SA’s legal sector

Law Society of SA president Tim Mellor discusses the challenges and opportunities facing SA’s law firms.

The Law Society of SA says regulation is stifling Adelaide law firms.

• SA’s biggest law firms expect further consolidation
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In a state where economic gloom has dominated the narrative so long, it is somewhat encouraging that an “improving SA economy” came out as the number one opportunity among respondents in the Advertiser’s legal survey.

Not that we should over-egg the pudding and fete the economic boom just yet, but there has been a rising tide of optimism, some of it even backed by hard data, that suggests SA’s economy is beginning to recover from the decline of the manufacturing sector which was for so long the lifeblood our fiscal well-being.

Conversely yet unsurprisingly, the state of our economy also figures relatively highly as one of the key challenges for law firms.

This is the perennial predicament of the profession – the opportunities often mirror the challenges. For example, some law firms see the rise of technology as a major challenge, while others view it as a prime opportunity. For most firms, technology presents both obstacles and new avenues for doing business.

Without wanting to over-generalise, the attitude to technology may to some degree run along generational lines. The most recent national profile of the profession indicated that the SA lawyers were, on average, older than those in other states and territories. This is partly due to the brain drain of talented young South Australians, including many law graduates who move interstate because of a lack of opportunities in SA. This needs to be addressed.

It’s no secret that the legal profession has been doing it tough. Commercial firms have had to grapple with a stagnant economy, while legislation which erodes the legal rights of individuals has caused work to shrivel up, especially in relation to personal injury.

The Law Society believes more should be done to facilitate the competitiveness of the SA legal profession. The profession plays a significant part in the health of the economy – not only by making up a sizable chunk of the workforce, but by the essential role lawyers play in protecting commercial rights of businesses and financial security of individuals.

Many lawyers who practice in the so called “recession proof” areas of law such as family, criminal and wills and estates law are also finding it difficult because of factors such as reduced legal aid funding and the proliferation of “DIY” law. The great irony is that by avoiding legal advice in the first place, many people are creating bigger, more costly problems in the future.

One of the keys to making legal services more accessible and levelling the playing field is to ease the regulatory burden on lawyers without compromising the high standards of ethics which the profession is bound by.

There is a growing trend of non-legal industries moving in on work traditionally performed by lawyers. These industries do not offer the same level of consumer protection as the legal profession does, nor, in many circumstances, do they have the expertise to provide the kind of watertight advice that clients need to avoid future problems.

If one takes the free market purist view that legal work should be opened up to the wider market, then it is even more urgent to rectify the uneven playing field created by onerous regulatory obligations of the legal profession.

The legal practice landscape may be constantly evolving but principles and values remain the same. At the heart of it, the value of lawyers is in preventing future problems and resolving disputes when they arise. Whether you object to your neighbour’s fence or are negotiating a multi-million dollar contract, there is bound to be a lawyer who can guide you through a complex situation. Our duty as the representative body of the profession is to communicate to the public the value of obtaining sound legal advice, but we also think policy makers can play an important role in identifying ways simplify and reduce the regulatory burden on the profession.