Nick Emmerson, president of the Law Society, the professional body for 160,000 solicitors in England and Wales, was adamant when he took office in the autumn that he wanted to flog a listed, 18th-century, three-storey townhouse that belongs to the organisation.
The property, around the corner from the society’s headquarters in Chancery Lane, has been used since 1929 as a bolt hole for the society’s presidents. Emmerson was “committed to getting rid of it”, he told The Times, partially joking that not only is it unsuitable for families “but it’s haunted”.
Fast forward several months, and Emmerson has either had a change of heart or received a tough lesson in the stubbornness of the society’s 100-strong ruling council, which last week overwhelmingly voted to retain
