It was no coincidence that the Ministry of Justice chose to release details of the highest-paid legal aid barristers and firms at the same time as it unveiled its latest plans for a tendering system for legal aid work.

The unsubtle message is, ‘we’re tightening our grip on what we will shell out on legal aid, and if you want to know why, just look at how much some of these lawyers are trousering’.

It is ironic, then, that the firms the MoJ has chosen to spotlight as high earners are following precisely the model that it favours – increasing in size, taking on high volumes of work and operating with maximum efficiency.

Legal aid minister Lord Bach has made it clear that he wants to rid the market of small players to create just 500 firms. Small firms have been voicing concern for some time that the government has been seeking to do a deal with the bigger practices. And as the saying goes, just because you’re paranoid, that doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

The smaller players will face hard choices in respect of how to succeed under the new tender process, with many forced to merge. As for the process itself, there are some welcome signs of a more practical approach – with minimum bid levels, for example.

Let us at least hope the MoJ has paid close attention to the lessons to be learned from the debacle that was best-value tendering.