8th November, 2005

General practitioners may be a dying breed

Solicitors find everything's a specialism in field of law

The medical profession has a body called “The Royal College of General Practitioners”. To gain entry medics have to pass exams and satisfy the College authorities they are worthy. This is odd. How do you demonstrate excellence in generalities? Are they expected to gain only mediocre marks in each exam, on the basis that if their score was too high they would be deemed “specialist” and thus unsuitable material.

The R.C.G.P. exists because the medical profession has, recognised the crucial role which a GP plays. Many of the best doctors are in fact GPs. They have developed investigative, diagnostic and pastoral skills crucial to patient care and management, and are entitled to have their position within the system recognised.

What about lawyers? I do a fair bit of lecturing and seminar presentation to local faculties and groups. A few weeks ago I visited an important, but provincial, sheriff court town and had a useful seminar with the solicitors there on recent legislation in property law. Two remarks to me have stuck.. One was: “Everything’s a specialism now. How do you train a general practitioner?”. Another was: “I hardly come across a young solicitor round here any more. They’re all my age or older”.

I wonder if there is a link here. The traditional role of the family solicitor has been as the “man of business”. Making wills, buying and selling houses, advise on neighbour disputes, sorting out incompetent tradesmen, holding hands through divorces, etc. If there was a business the solicitor would conduct commercial deals, pursue debtors, advise on employment disputes, manage the conversion to limited company status, and so on. Such a solicitor was and in many cases still is, a general practitioner.

But it is now much harder. One of the traditional “bread and butter” revenue sources, house conveyancing, has become intensely competitive to the extent almost of being commoditised. Speaking recently with a high profile volume conveyancer in Glasgow I was shocked to learn that his practice is the main provider of conveyancing services in Dumfries and Galloway. One has to admire his business acumen but also ask what that is doing to the traditional family solicitor in that part of the country. Other fields of practice are demanding greater knowledge and specialism. Employment law has become a minefield of compliance, consultation and cost. Family law is filling up bookshelves at a terrific rate, selling even a small business seems to generate documentation of a length which, a generation ago, would have looked after the merger of listed companies, and changes in property law have left ordinary solicitors doubting their ability even to sell off part of their client’s garden ground properly.

In this climate I do wonder if the hard pressed middle aged lawyer I spoke to was onto something in noting the lack of youth in his area. Are younger lawyers sensing the pre-eminence of the specialist and seeking positions in the cities and larger firms as the safer and more rewarding career options? Who cares, you might say. If some old time lawyers who cannot hack it in this modern world find themselves going under. Perhaps it doesn’t but clearly we do not, take the same view in medical care, where we have given the traditional GP a key role, and by all accountsis rewarded generously for it.