Commentary on Sections Background Section 15: Carrying on of a reserved legal activity: employers and employees etc
70.This section concerns the carrying on of reserved legal activities by employers and employees. Section 15(2) to 15(3), together with section 15(11), make it clear that where a person carries on an activity through an employee or manager both that person and the employee or manager are regarded as carrying on the activity and so both must be entitled to carry on the activity under the Act.
71.Section 15(4), together with section 15(5), provides that where an individual employee carries out a service for an employer which would ordinarily be a reserved legal activity (for example, litigation services), the employer will not be treated as carrying out a reserved legal activity if the service is not provided to the public or a section of the public in the course of or as an aspect of the employer’s business. The effect of this is, for example, that where a body employs lawyers to provide in-house legal services to that body or to certain persons connected to the body, but not to the public or a section of the public, the body in question will not need to be an authorised person. This does not alter the fact that any individual lawyers which the body employs to provide reserved activities will need to be authorised persons.
72.Sections 15(6) to 15(8) deal with trade unions. People who are provided with relevant services by virtue of membership (including the membership of another person, and former membership) do not constitute the public or a section of the public where legal services that the union is providing are excepted membership services. These are defined in section 15(7) as services related to a member’s relevant activities, other activities arising from them, events that have occurred in the course of them, and activities that are connected with a person’s union membership. The Lord Chancellor may specify other services by order and, under section 15(8), may make orders about the circumstances in which services are connected with these matters. Section 15(12) defines relevant activities for trade union purposes as any employment, trade, occupation, or other activity to which union membership relates.
73.Under section 15(9) the Lord Chancellor may also by order make provision about what constitutes a “section of the public”, and the circumstances in which the provision of services does or does not form “part of the employer’s business”. These orders can only be made on the Board’s recommendation (section 15(10)).