Annex C
BACKGROUND TO THE CONSULTATION EXERCISE
1.
On 13 May a copy of the petition was sent to the Law Society who were invited to comment by 13 June 1988.
2.
On 10 June 1988 the Law Society forwarded a 60 page submission to the Administration in which they set out in detail their arguments against the proposals contained in the petition. The Law Society did not indicate that they had been provided with inadequate time to make the submission or that there were any other issues which, for any reason, they had been unable to address in their
submission.
3.
Following ExCo's Decision on 26 July 1988 and before any public announcement was made the Deputy Chief Secretary and Attorney General had separate meetings with representatives of the Law Society and the foreign law firms to explain to them that Decision, the perceived
The active involvement of consequences and the way ahead. the Law Society was considered necessary in order to devise detailed proposals to implement the policy.
4.
It was explained to both groups that the meetings were confidential and that Government had no intention of making a public statement on its policy proposals. It was hoped that the agreement of both groups would be secured to work with the Administration over the following few months with a view to drawing up detailed proposals which could be put to ExCo. The representatives of the foreign law firms were prepared to do this and were keen to enter into a dialogue. The Law Society, however,
. . . / -