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The Faculty of Advocates’ reforms of some two years ago have now bedded in well after a difficult period, with the movement of advocates between stables having declined to a modest level. Most stables, though now ‘devolved’ from FSL, the Faculty Service company, are not English chambers; the Faculty remains an independent body to which the majority of practising advocates owe their principal loyalty, and the stables are administrative units within it. In a climate of concern about public funded work, particularly amongst advocates of recent call, moves toward greater independence seem unlikely and the Faculty should be able to look toward a settled period.
Despite the removal of the ‘mixed doubles’ rule, (which prevented advocates appearing with solicitor-advocates), relations between the Faculty and the Law Society of Scotland have deteriorated since Lord Gill’s comments in the Woodside appeal, which included concerns about solicitors’ clients being fully informed about their rights to choose representation in court.
The 14 existing stables fall into three broad categories, civil, criminal and mixed. Within each of these, some individual stables have branded as specialists in specific practice areas. Although solicitors have confirmed that the specialist groupings are helpful, Scottish advocates tend to have wider practices than their English counterparts, and inclusion in one category does not imply that the advocate mentioned is limited to that area of practice.