Guardian readers will recognise the above formulation, which the newspaper occasionally employs to applaud society’s less conspicuous mainstays. We employ it in part to balance last week’s opinion, which reflected on the declining respect in which solicitors believe their profession is held and the metamorphosis of our letters page into a weekly jeremiad.

It’s no use denying that 2009 has been one of the most challenging – even traumatic – years in the profession’s history. Legal aid cuts, insurance hikes, mass redundancies – the list goes on. But we hope you are steeled to enter the new year stoical rather than embittered.

In that regard we are indebted to correspondent Damian Lines, who qualified in 2007 and wrote in to address what has become a common refrain: ‘What’s the point of being a solicitor?’

‘There is something inherently "special" about being able to call oneself a solicitor,’ he reminds us. ‘Whether it is advising a bereaved child on administering their parent’s estate, assisting in the purchase of a new house, or attending a police station in the darkest hours of the night, our clients appreciate what we do. The years of financial hardship and study have been worth it. I have a career that interests me, that I enjoy, and that makes a difference to my clients. To me, that is the "point" of being a solicitor.’

Unimprovably put; and it needed to be said.