The Law Society is to decide on its future leader this week, with the election of a new deputy vice president scheduled for today (18 May).

The results of a vote by Chancery Lane council members will decide which of the eight candidates will take on the position, which carries with it a virtual guarantee of full presidency by 2009.

The election candidates are: former Beachcroft Wansbroughs managing partner Bob Heslett; William Sturges & Co property partner Michael Franks; former Law Society training committee chair Helen Davis; sole practitioners Derek French and Denis Cameron; chair of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund Paul Marsh; Russell Jones & Walker litigation partner Fraser Whitehead and Palmer Capital Partners chief executive Christopher Digby Bell.

It is understood Digby Bell, who was re-elected to the Law Society council last year, is championing a move to hand more power back to the society's main council, a strategy likely to be popular with many of its 105 members.

The post of deputy vice president carries a 12-month term and is the first of three consecutive years in the executive of the Law Society, culminating in a one-year term as president, a role currently held by Kevin Martin.

Vice president Fiona Woolf of CMS Cameron McKenna is due to be installed as the society's new president in July and will be replaced by the present deputy vice-president, Andrew Holroyd, while the latest successful candidate will replace Holroyd in the summer.

The election comes after the Law Society last month unveiled Desmond Hudson, chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, as the replacement for chief executive Janet Paraskeva, who is to leave Chancery Lane in the summer after five years.