Chartered Institute of Legal Executives

Journal

Volume 2

OCCASIONALLY, I’m asked what I mean when I say I practised law. An important question.

I am a retired Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives (now the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives). I remain a Fellow as I retired in 2010, that is to say, I am not Chartered, in much the same way as we think of Chartered Accountants.

Founded in 1892, the Institute of Legal Executives became a company limited by guarantee in 1963 with the support and co-operation of the Law Society.

On January 30, 2012, the Institute was incorporated by Royal Charter as the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, and Fellows regraduated to become Chartered. This was no paper exercise or natural evolution. The Charter application had been rejected several times during my 29.5 years in legal practice.

Sometimes, I’m asked whether I am a lawyer.

Also an important question, and I am pleased that Google has a formal entry dated as recently as March 1, 2021. The entry reads thus:

“‘The difference is that a chartered legal executive is a qualified lawyer who is trained to specialise as an expert in one or two particular areas of the law, whereas solicitors have a broader, more general legal training. There are alternative academic routes to becoming a chartered legal executive lawyer.’ ”

— Google Entry March 1, 2021

My area of specialism was non-contentious probate and succession, the administration of estates, drafting of wills and trusts, Attorneyship, Court of protection and Public Trust Office.

It is important for those considering a career as a chartered legal executive lawyer to keep in mind that whilst one specialises in one or two areas of law, one must, nevertheless pass examinations to degree level in every area of law.

The slightly junior position to a chartered legal executive is the qualified para-legal. Here, the practitioner must pass qualifying examinations in their chosen area of practice. In my early years in practice, I recall several colleagues who started their careers as legal secretaries and became expert in their field of operation. I was blessed with several legal secretaries who had developed a sound knowledge and understanding of my own area of law, and at least two went on to take diploma examinations that enabled them to practise law in my specialism.

I mention non-contentious.

In English Jurisprudence, we divide probate and succession into non-contentious and contentious. Many estates remain non-contentious even though one is dealing with battling families; difficult, even enraged, beneficiaries, and so forth. Board rooms have, many times, seen most unpleasant disagreements between warring factions, made worse because it is all in the shadow of recent demise.

Our aim is to find commonality, a mutual understanding, enabling the principle of equity (fairness) to take centre court.

This does not always work.

At that point I would advise my clients that in my view the matter had become formally contentious.

This would immediately stop all work by me and my team, and the estate file would be prepared and handed to the senior partner (a solicitor) and I would formally disengage, and prepare costs up to the point when the estate became contentious. That invoice would sit on file for the supervening Partner to deal with.

The Contentious Probate Rules would then immediately activate.

I remember one very incensed client asking me what on earth that meant! We sat in the boardroom. The coffee had long gone cold.

‘It means, sir, that noting can now be done in the estate; the sale of the house must now stop, and the property be taken off the market. The senior partner will write to you. The papers will then be sent to barristers’ chambers, for an Opinion as to how best to proceed.

‘The problem is that this will inevitably eat into estate assets. When the matter is resolved, the estate file will be returned to me with a set of instructions, and you and I will then once again have a lawyer-client relationship. Why? Because the contentious matter has been resolved, further invoices raised to reflect the work done by the supervening solicitor, enabling us both to pick up the file where we left off almost a year ago.

He sat for a while. I remember his wife. You see? You see what you’ve now done?!

Kenneth Thomas Webb
Liverpool and Gloucestershire

June 6, 2022
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© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

One of the Fifteen Founding Members of the Leaders Lodge

First written July 23, 2021