The Council of the Law Society, many, if not all, of whom are members of the SMDF considered whether they could compel SMDF members to bailout the SMDF themselves. They decided they could not.
However, they decided they could compel members of the Law Society to do so. They have identified the pressure point on Law Society members as the annual practising certificate. Without the certificate a solicitor cannot practise. They propose to refuse a certificate unless the solicitor pays the bailout cost.
This assumes that the delivery of the certificate is a gift or a grant from the Law Society; it is not. The furnishing of the certificate is an act of the executive power of the State; the Law Society is simply an agent of the State in the transaction. It has no right to deny the certificate to a qualified solicitor. In furnishing the certificate it is following the provisions of legislation for the granting of certificates.
That legislation confers no power on the Law Society to extort its members to bailout a private, dodgy, financial services provider, the SMDF.
The Council of the Law Society is about to crash and burn, whatever the outcome of the postal poll.