The Law Society of England and Wales is to launch an investigation into the number of in-house lawyers currently working without practising certificates as concern mounts among corporate counsel over the escalating cost of practising certificates and the professional privilege rights of those without them.

Commerce & Industry (C&I) Group chair Carol Williams met with Law Society president Peter Williamson earlier this month to discuss the rising burden of paying for the practising certificate, the cost of which has risen from £460 to £910 over the past five years – an increase of more than 65%.

Later this year, the European Court of First Instance will hold a full hearing into the case of Dutch chemicals company AKZO Nobel, which is examining the professional privilege status of in-house lawyers. If, as many expect, the court grants professional privilege status to in-house lawyers in the course of competition law investigations, then it is likely to apply only to those that are regulated by their national bars.

The C&I Group is campaigning for in-house lawyers in England and Wales to be able to opt-out of the portion – currently £120 – of the practising certificate fee that is paid toward the Law Society Compensation Fund, as their counterparts in Scotland are able to do.

Although in theory, companies defrauded by their in-house lawyers could make a claim on the fund, in practice Williams said that it was very unlikely they would do so and that she was unaware of any successful claims. The main beneficiaries of the fund are the clients of private practice law firms who are not covered by other forms of insurance.

The C&I Group is also negotiating with the Law Society over what title in-house lawyers that do not hold practising certificates can use, with the Law Society reluctant to sanction the use of the title 'legal adviser'. "We get a lot of information about what you cannot call yourself, but very little about what you can," Williams said.

The results of the Law Society's research should be known in the next few weeks.