Lord Gill emphasises independence of legal profession

In a speech at the opening of the Commonwealth Law Conference in Glasgow, Lord Gill, the Lord President, stressed the importance of an independent legal profession.

He said: "...one of society's priorities is to foster the independence of the profession and particularly the independent referral bar. It is in the interests of the public that every citizen should have available the services of lawyers who have no ties to any organisation and whose duties lie only to the court, to the client and to their professional body and its exacting standards. The independence of the citizen's defender is the surest bulwark in the defence of the rule of law. And it is in that tradition of independence that the judiciary should find its greatness."

The full speech can be seen at http://www.scotland-judiciary.org.uk/Upload/Documents/LPCommonwealthLawConferencekeynotespeech13April2015.pdf