The Law Society Gazette - History of The Gazette

History of The Gazette

The Gazette was the creation of the Law Society's Registry Department as a way to communicate between the Society's members for the negotiation of sales, mortgages, partnerships and clerkships. By 1900, the Registry had also begun to amass brief notices about professional issues affecting solicitors, which the Law Society's Council felt would be of use and interest to the Society's membership. The Gazette and Register was launched in November 1903 as a convenient method to communicate this information to the Society's members.

Initially it was published on a monthly basis and was only available to members of the Society. In its very first issue, the Society encouraged its members to contribute to the ‘General Information’ section with the instructions that contributions must be "strictly confined to matters of fact of general professional interest, and must not contain expressions of opinion or anything of a controversial character".

Continuing with its main aim of encouraging and enabling communication between Law Society members, the Gazette also provided the opportunity for solicitors who were seeking positions to promote their services or vacancies to colleagues. These adverts provide interesting information about the social history of the time – for example, an advert from 1908 offered a room in a solicitors firm for the bargain rent of £38 per annum. The cost included "use of electric light". Use of the telephone was only "by arrangement".

As it continues to do today, the Law Society Gazette has always provided an opportunity for solicitors to stay abreast of new advances in technology – in 1968 it was advertising training courses in the use of computers and in 1984 it promoted a new method of ‘electronic mail’ known as ‘fax’.