.... This raises serious questions about professional ethics and the role of the Law Society. The guidance seems not to recognise that there is a serious potential conflict between the code of conduct for solicitors and the guidance.
Here is what the code – which all solicitors must abide by – says about equality and diversity: “As a matter of general law, you must comply with requirements set out in legislation – including the Equality Act 2010 – as well as the conduct duties contained in this chapter.”
In other words, it makes clear that solicitors cannot discriminate; yet this new guidance encourages us to facilitate discrimination in advising Muslim clients on how to draft their wills in way that is incompatible with equality legislation.
This is a dangerous precedent and legitimises a discriminatory practice that, without this guidance, clients may have been embarrassed to ask about. The Law Society’s endorsement normalises it and makes it acceptable.
That, in turn, will make it easier for calls to be made for such rules to be formalised, thereby opening the way for Sharia to permeate other areas, such as family law. The guidance should be withdrawn. [The Telegraph] Read more
