The Law Society has raised the cost of practicising certificates by nearly 20% in order to cover, what it claims, will be one-off costs.
The rise - to £1,180 - means that the biggest City firms will now have to find anything up to an extra £500,000 a year at a time when profits are collapsing. The Society claims the extra money will go towards setting up the Office for Legal Complaints and the Legal Services Board, which it reckons will cost around £19 million.
However, despite pleading that the rise was necessary to cover this one off cost, the Law Soc does not seem to have been holding back on its own spending. The increase coincides with the revelation that in the past year the salary for Chief Executive Des Hudson has risen by £70,000 to £304,000 - making Hudson one of the very few people in the legal profession to have received a 30% pay rise in recent times.
A spokesman for the Society said that the payrise had been given last year and that this year, in line with all other Law Society staff, Hudson's pay had been frozen.
Tip Off ROF
The rise - to £1,180 - means that the biggest City firms will now have to find anything up to an extra £500,000 a year at a time when profits are collapsing. The Society claims the extra money will go towards setting up the Office for Legal Complaints and the Legal Services Board, which it reckons will cost around £19 million.
However, despite pleading that the rise was necessary to cover this one off cost, the Law Soc does not seem to have been holding back on its own spending. The increase coincides with the revelation that in the past year the salary for Chief Executive Des Hudson has risen by £70,000 to £304,000 - making Hudson one of the very few people in the legal profession to have received a 30% pay rise in recent times.
 |
Another Des with a big pay packet |
A spokesman for the Society said that the payrise had been given last year and that this year, in line with all other Law Society staff, Hudson's pay had been frozen.