Is it really feasible that a law firm in Carlisle will be allowed to profit-share with a local accountant and save on overheads, while another firm up the M6 in Gretna will not? The answer, fortunately, appears to be no. After years of prevarication and politicking, the Scottish legal profession is at last on the cusp of a Clementi-style modernisation process which has been too long delayed.

The large Anglo-Scottish firms in particular will be relieved, amid concern that the absence of a level playing field between England and Scotland would be anti-competitive and against consumers’ interests. A rift was reported to have emerged between the largest of their number and the Law Society of Scotland over the need for reform – with the latter highly sceptical about Clementi until recently.

Only three years ago the Edinburgh-based body was telling Scottish ministers that it ‘could see no circumstances in which the ownership and control of law firms by non-lawyers could be permitted, without surrendering the prime objectives of maintaining independence and public protection’. That was followed last year by a volte-face when Society members voted by a large majority to open up the country’s legal services market.

Would reform ever have been seriously contemplated had the Office of Fair Trading not upheld a super-complaint from Which?, arguing that protectionist barriers within the Scottish profession were hindering competition, restricting choice and pushing up fees?

We shall never know.