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A day after media groups urged a review of the Independent Commission Against Corruption's search and seizure powers,  the Law Society has called for a review of the  agency's relationship with lawyers.

This follows last weekend's ICAC raids on newspapers and the arrests and detention for 41 hours of a solicitor and a barrister after publication of the name of a protected witness.

Law Society president Michael Lintern-Smith also suggested, in a meeting with ICAC Commissioner Raymond Wong Hong-chiu, head of operations Daniel Li Ming-chak and other officers, the establishment of a working party for the ICAC and lawyers to discuss guidelines and how to improve and better monitor them.

Mr Lintern-Smith requested the meeting on Monday.

'I was sufficiently concerned by press reports of what had happened last weekend to approach the ICAC on Monday,' Mr Lintern-Smith said.

'It was very unfortunate that the events of last weekend had raised the levels of concern within two areas of society which are the most important in being vigilant in protecting issues of freedom: the press and the legal profession.'

He  told the commissioner the Law Society recognised the important role played by the ICAC in fighting corruption but that because of the special powers granted to the graft-busters and the nature of the crimes they investigated, there was a need for special vigilance from lawyers.

'We discussed in detail the current protocols in relation to solicitors' roles when acting for clients being interviewed by the ICAC who are being detained,' he said. 'We covered issues such as access to clients in custody, phone-tapping of solicitors and what might be perceived as overuse of their special powers. We frequently hear complaints from members.'

Mr Lintern-Smith asked that a working party between the Law Society and the ICAC be set up to look into how the agency's internal guidelines and a series of protocols the two established 20 years ago were being used and whether they needed to be revised.

'There is a problem if you're listening to calls between a suspect informing his solicitor on a case because this is subject to legal professional privilege, for example,' he said.

After the meeting, Mr Li said the ICAC would carefully consider the working party proposal.

The ICAC heads also held a meeting with the Newspaper Society, which criticised the raids and warned that they had damaged public perceptions of press freedom.



Lawyers want review of accord on relations with ICAC