The Law Society has committted £300,000 to fund allowances for its council members, the majority of whom are senior solicitors with comfortable incomes.
Council members have never been given an allowance before, although they have been able to claim expenses for Law Society activities.
Each of the 100 council members will now be paid £3,000 a year, regardless of whether they turn up to meetings or not. A Law Society spokesperson said the issue was a “technical one”.
The Law Society Council also heard on Thursday (22 May) that the society’s pension scheme, which last year The Lawyer revealed had a deficit of £12m (7 January 2002), is now suffering from a £35m shortfall.
The pensions black hole was revealed in the latest set of Law Society accounts, which also showed that the former head of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors John Plane received a £358,000 redundancy pay-ment last year.
