Frances Low

As company secretary and legal director for London Underground Frances Low was heavily involved in the controversial Public Private Partnership initiative, which saw the group transfer its business to Transport for London in July. Now she takes up the newly created role of director of legal services at the Law Society of England and Wales as it fights to hold on to its regulatory powers. Here she speaks to Legal Director about her new role and why she hates life to be boring

September 24, 2003 at 08:03 PM

5 minute read

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What do you consider to be your main achievements after 24 years at London Transport and London Underground?
Working with London Underground on the modernisation after the King's Cross fire and helping the board achieve the Public Private Partnership. Also establishing a really excellent legal team to pass on to Transport for London.

What attracted you to the Law Society?
I saw the advertisement and thought: what an opportunity to use my skills and experience for the profession!

Where do you sit within the current Law Society management structure and what will be the main focus of your new role?
I sit on the senior management team. Along with the chief executive and five other directors, we are officers of the Law Society. We have a similar role to the Civil Service in that we advise and assist the elected body, the Council. The main focus of my role will be to bring together the legal and corporate functions into a new department and develop the department so that it provides the Law Society with the focused and excellent service it requires for the future. The legal team will advise on litigation, conveyancing and other legal issues and the corporate team will perform a secretariat role, serving the main central committees and advising on the
election processes.

What changes do you plan to introduce to the legal function in the coming year?
The legal function is well run already – as you would expect – but we need to build on its expertise internally. We also need to review how we use our external legal service providers, and I will be taking this process forward. Corporate governance issues are taken seriously by the Law Society and are under regular review.

What will be your main challenges in the coming year?
The Government's review of competition and regulation in the legal services market will be the main challenge. I really would not speculate as to whether one day US-style federal regulation of lawyers will be introduced by the Government here – despite globalisation, the legal professions in different jurisdictions continue to maintain their own distinct ways of doing things.

What was the attraction of a regulatory body after a career in the transport sector?
Is it so different? It is, after all, my clients who run the trains or regulate the lawyers, as the case may be. I provide the legal and corporate secretarial back-up and much of that will be the same or based on the same principles: judicial reviews, employment law, advice to decision makers etc.

"Out of the frying pan into the fire." Is this a fair description of your move from London Underground to Chancery Lane?
I would hate life to be boring!

Having most recently been an in-house lawyer yourself, what is the perception of the Law Society in industry?
Years ago the Law Society always seemed to be on the side of private practice and to regard in-house lawyers as second class citizens. But this has changed markedly. The practice rules no longer read as if they are designed to stop in-house practitioners taking the bread out of the mouths of City firms! I did find it frustrating that it was not always easy to see what the Law Society was doing for my particular part of the profession – I suppose everyone feels that. But the Law Society does hide its light under a bushel so that practitioners are not necessarily aware of how much hard work and successful lobbying (about Sarbanes-Oxley for example) is actually going on on their behalf.

What are the main challenges for the legal profession in the coming five years?
To maintain a sense of its own coherence and worth to society, from City firms to high-street practices. Without that, society certainly will not have any sense of the value of the legal profession.

Lawyers do not make good business people because they are trained to "advise on risk but not to take risks" – do you think that this is a fair comment?
No. Quite the reverse. Clients can be muddled about commercial decisions and legal decisions because they are afraid of 'the law' and what effect taking a particular view of an issue can have. Lawyers understand the difference, which makes commercial decision making easier. A lawyer can separate out legal business risk from unlawfulness or unethical conduct and thus have a positive and clear role in decision making. And an in-house lawyer is better placed to advise in these two scenarios than an external lawyer who is paid just to advise on the law, not to take the wider
view on behalf of the company.

What advice do you have for lawyers who aspire to work in business?
Be clear at all times with yourself and the company, whether you are speaking as a lawyer or a business decision maker. And be robust – as an employee you are far harder to sack than an external law firm!

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
Getting a scholarship to Oxford from an East End grammar school.

What do you consider to be your greatest failing?
Not leaving the office early enough.

What if anything keeps you awake at night?
Nothing.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years' time?
I shall be 65 and retiring – from the Law Society!