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Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 108DB: 108DB: Clause 88, page 50, line 9, leave out ““an employee or”” and insert ““a”” The noble Lord said: This amendment was rightly provoked by the City of London Law Society. Its purpose is to avoid imposing professional duties, which are statutory, on non-professional members of staff. Briefly, Clause 88 imposes an obligation on non-authorised employees of an ABS to refrain from doing anything that contributes to a breach of professional duties of an authorised person. So, for example, a secretary who types and sends correspondence on the wrong letterhead could be directly and personally liable for a breach of professional rules even though he or she had not had the benefit of professional training and nor would he or she hold a professional qualification. Therefore, there is a justifiable perception that that is unfair. Professional duties should not be extended on a statutory basis to non-professional members of staff. It is also perhaps unnecessary, to the extent that solicitors are already responsible for breaches of professional duty caused by their members of staff. I beg to move.