Professionalism underpins trust, not governance

VIEW FROM THE BAR The independent review (7 September 2021), in which Alison Levitt QC made some seriously critical findings concerning the governance of the RICS, will no doubt have led both to some serious despondency among the membership of the institution and, perhaps more seriously, to a perception among the general public (who may not trouble to read the 467-page open report) that the ills of the leadership are symptomatic of a wider malaise among the membership. As barristers whose involvement with the RICS over the years has been extensive, we take this opportunity to express our support for the organisation and the professionalism of its membership. We write as two reasonably experienced property practitioners, whose contacts with the RICS over, between us, 70 years of practice at the Bar have been many and various. We have been instructed by chartered surveyors or advised them as agents for their clients; we have called chartered surveyors to give evidence; we have cross examined them; we have lectured with and to them; we have sat on committees with them; we have sat on drafting groups with them; we have interviewed them; and we have vastly enjoyed socialising with them. We think we know them pretty well. As Levitt noted in her review, the RICS is a professional membership organisation with a Royal Charter, which provides that in its regulatory activities it must promote the public advantage. In practice, this means that members of the RICS are trained and held to a high standard, and that the ordinary citizen has a remedy in the event that they were to receive an unsatisfactory level of service. Parallels with the bar The Bar is organised differently, but like the members of the RICS, we take pride in professionalism and high standards. We recognise, when we look at the processes through which chartered surveyors have to go in order to gain their qualifications, a similarity in the provision of very high quality training, a satisfaction in the achievement of excellence rather than mere competence, and a desire for continual improvement. The similarities continue from there. Just as the Bar relies on the provision by barrister volunteers of training in ethics and advocacy (among other necessary skills), to supplement the subjects taught at Bar school, with hundreds of thousands of hours of tuition annually administered through the Bar Council and the Inns of Court, so too do the members of RICS give up their time to train those more junior in their craft. We know this: we have joined in many of the lectures, workshops and seminars in which leading chartered surveyors impart their wisdom and experience. This is not something that can be taught through books: the passing on of practical experience from member to member provides an education that is second to none. Best practice Over all this activity, carried on everywhere from elegant halls in Great George Street to smaller rooms up and down the land, the RICS supervises, instructs, lays down rules and advises. It distils best practice out of the many ways in which the surveying job can be done; it condenses that best practice into helpful guides; it ensures that the profession learns about it; and it carries out the training required to ensure competent individuals and accredited expert witnesses. So too with the Bar – although I have often thought that we have much to learn from the way in which things are done in Parliament Square. All this learning and improvement translates into highly skilled individuals on whom the public depend for informed and helpful insights into their day to day problems. Should I buy this house? Can my tenant just walk out of my building leaving it in disrepair? What sort of rent could I get for this flat? Can that developer put up a tower block that will block my light? Where should the boundary between my property and next door lie? Do I really have to pay that service charge? Without decent advice on these and other problems, the housing and other markets in which we live and work would not function properly. Without the careful stewardship provided by the RICS we do not think the picture would be quite as rosy. Our professional bodies perform an essential role in laying down the standards which should govern our lives; in disseminating best practice; in ensuring we all keep educating ourselves; and in providing a very congenial network of likeminded colleagues. Over and above all this, they are organisations of publicly-minded people whose abiding interest lies in ensuring that the best possible service is provided for their members. Contribution of the individual The strength of both the Bar and the profession of chartered surveyors, however, is not in the institutions by which we are trained and governed. It is in our individual and collective ethos that our value to the public as professionals lies. However well governed our respective institutions may be, it is our professionalism in the way we serve our clients and deal with each other which makes us of value to the public. Ultimately, while governance can foster professionalism, it is no substitute for professionalism. It is the professionalism of a practitioner which underpins the trust of a client or a court. In the case of chartered surveyors it is a professional reputation which has been created over a period of more than 150 years. This reputation owes far more to integrity of its individual membership than the governance of the institution itself. So, while Levitt was rightly robust in her conclusions regarding certain shortcomings in the governance architecture of the RICS, the governing body and members should not be despondent. Indeed, we consider that they can take heart. The criticisms which have been made do not touch the day to day professionalism with which chartered surveyors serve the public and should not be seen as diminishing their status. Guy Fetherstonhaugh QC and Jonathan Karas QC are barristers at Falcon Chambers