ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on archive material which dates from the establishment of ILEX in 1963 and its predecessor, the Solicitors Managing Clerks Association, in 1892. ILEX oversees the education and regulation of legal executives and represents their interests. In focusing upon the relationships between ILEX and the Law Society, it is possible to identify the underlying limitations of the collective project of legal executives. It is important to note that it was the Law Society that initially invited proposals to deal with the shortage of managing clerks a staff recruitment problem for solicitors. The mimetic processes which saw ILEX/SMCA aspire towards the Law Society as the model of a professional association continued to influence the organization's strategies in the years between 1998 and 2010. The employer/employee relationship in the workplace saw the Benson Commission leave it to solicitors to recognize the ILEX qualification on a voluntary and individual basis.
