8.1 The recommendations which we have made in this Report constitute a substantial step, but only a first step, towards the reform which we consider necessary in the regulatory system and structure of the legal profession. We have sought to recommend changes which will encourage other changes to come about through the actions of the profession itself and of the people involved in the modified regulatory system which we have proposed. It is essential that the momentum for reform which has developed within the Law Society during the course of our inquiry should be maintained. We note that the current President of the Law Society shares this view. ¹ It is important that a similar momentum should develop within the Bar Association.

8.2 Implementation of the recommendations in this Report should not be seen as an end of a period of reform, but rather as a first phase. There are, in particular, a number of areas of central importance in which events may prove it desirable, indeed essential, to go further than we have recommended in this Report. They include such issues as

(i) whether the public members of the Law Society Council and the Bar Council should be given voting rights;

(ii) whether the Law Society Council and the Bar Council should continue to be general regulatory bodies as well as being the governing bodies of professional associations; and

(iii) whether there should be one general regulatory body for the whole profession.

We mention other issues of this kind in our recommendations at the end of this chapter. On some of these major issues we may have erred on the side of caution; we are confident that we have not gone too far.

8.3 In the light of these considerations, it is essential that the regulation and structure of the profession be kept under active and continuing review, not only by the profession itself but also by people outside the profession. A major contribution to this continuing review should be made by the Law Society Council and the Bar Council (including, in particular, their public members), and by the Public Council on Legal Services. In addition, we think it desirable that the Government should adopt a general principle of regular, periodic reviews of the regulation and structure of the profession. We note here the recommendation of the Professional Organisations Committee in Ontario to the effect that the Government should conduct a review every ten years of each of the professions (including law) which fell within the Committee’s terms of reference. ¹ In recommending periodic reviews the committee said, amongst other things:

“We have recommended a number of changes in the legislation governing these professions: whatever recommendations may be implemented, the effects will have to be assessed at some future time. Furthermore, changing conditions will undoubtedly give rise to issues which have not confronted us”. ²

8.4 In our view, the requirement to hold a periodic review, and the frequency with which it should be held, should be specified by statute, even if the statute is somewhat vague about the exact nature of the review and of the body or bodies by whom it is to be conducted. We suggest that the review should be held every five years, subject to a proviso that a review need not be held if the Attorney General reports to Parliament that, in his or her opinion, special circumstances make it undesirable to do so. The public members on the governing bodies, and the Public Council on Legal Services, should play a prominent role in the review, but there should be a special review committee set up for the purpose by the Attorney General. The committee should have only a few members, and should be composed in such a way as to be, collectively, independent of both the profession and the Government. The review need not be lengthy or exhaustive, but in recommendation 51 we list a number of issues which, in our view, should be given particular attention in the first review and perhaps also in subsequent reviews. That recommendation, and other recommendations arising out of the views expressed in this chapter, are listed as recommendations 49-5 1 in the Summary of Principal Recommendations at the beginning of this Report.

Para.
8.1	1. See Law Society Journal (1981), p.782.
8.3	1. Report (Ontario, 1980), pp.64-65.
	2. Ibid., p.64.