I am joined by Lorraine from the front seat of her car as she is waiting to collect her son from school to discuss her appointment as joint Chair of the Law Society’s Wills and Equity Committee, following in the footsteps of Ian Bond.
Her appointment, on a joint ticket with Royds Withy King’s Rod Smith, Lorraine talks about her own background, motivations and what’s on her agenda.
What prompted your decision to put yourself forward?
Rod and I decided to apply on a joint ticket because we felt our own different backgrounds meant we had understood different parts of the sector and could cover all bases of opinion
Rod’s practice is at Royds Withy King and is quite niche, dealing with high value, complex and multi-jurisdictional matters.
My own experience is in managing high volume will writing and probate. Having qualified at Hugh James where I was part of the team that set up our in-house online will writing proposition and serviced various bank will writing propositions, I then spent time in high street and regional practices before joining Farewill 3 years ago
We are really pleased that the Law Society recognises the background of the two of us and the opportunity that diversity brings. We want to encourage all committee members to be part of the discussion.
What’s on the agenda within the Committee?
The committee has an existing programme of work it is committed to and we’re there to help the Law Society on matters of policy. But we can help formulate some of that agenda.
At the moment a lot of the work revolves coronavirus and the response and obviously the big talking point is will witnessing.
The amendment has enabled this narrow change to allow “presence” to mean video as well as in person. While it’s a step in a new direction, it’s not a panacea. It is the case that video witnessing should be a last resort and there remain practicalities that make video witnessing challenging like the need for 2 video conferences to complete the will.
It’s no surprise that I read that 65% of respondents to your survey won’t be implementing it.
The Law Society will be providing some further information around the MoJ guidance in the coming weeks.
Beyond will witnessing we continue to meet with HMCTS regularly over probate delays. And while I feel for the profession, spare a thought for the charity sector who have been hard hit by the current pandemic and for our colleagues in legacy income as charities wait for cases to complete.
Following the recent investment at Farewill tell us about plans there…
At Farewill our mission is to change the way the world deals with death.
We’ve got the core online Will writing product; since then we’ve launched probate and cremation services. We’re also expanding our funeral, telephone Will writing and lasting powers of attorney services.
Without stirring the regulated/unregulated debate, at Farewill we place legal professionals at the heart of what we do; we’re a technology led service with humans at the core of what we do.
Lorraine Robinson was speaking to Today’s Wills & Probate
