A Law Society decision to splurge nearly £20m on a new IT system at a time when it has been promising to clamp down on its spending has been attacked by members of its ruling council.

Project ‘engineer’ – with a predicted cost of £18m, representing nearly a third of the society’s current budget – was approved by the Law Society’s ruling council in April. But the planned new customer relationship management system (CRM) is already running into controversy at Chancery Lane.