The Law Society is coming under pressure to use the £54.5m surplus in the Solicitors’ Indemnity Fund (SIF) to plug the hole in its own pension fund, it has emerged, with the scheme’s trustees calling for a one-off £70m cash injection.

Earlier this month a Law Society paper published a letter by the scheme’s trustees, led by chairman John Hayes, warning Chancery Lane it could face intervention from the new Pensions Regulator if it did not use the SIF surplus to help clear the deficit.