Trustees for the Law Society’s pension fund have asked for a £20m cash injection to help plug an estimated £50m funding gap amid fears that Chancery Lane could soon lose its powers to fund the scheme with the practising certificate.
Legal Week has learned that the chairman of the pension fund’s trustee board, John Hayes, has written to Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva calling for the society to make the £20m payment this year and provide security for the remaining shortfall.
Embarrassingly, Hayes cites the current review of legal services regulation by Prudential chairman David Clementi as a reason for swift action.
Clementi’s review is widely expected to impact on the society’s position as a regulator when he reports at the end of the year, possibly ending Chancery Lane’s right to levy the practising certificate – its main source of revenue.
