National Law Week is here.

This is the week when we shall see positive news about solicitors.

But, as I have written previously, all the good work of the vast majority of solicitors can be undone by one fraudulent member.I hope it will be a week when we can celebrate the role the solicitor plays in the community; the work which so many do, without thought of payment, for charities, advice services and for clients.

In the larger firms this work tends to be more structured.

We are trying to survey the extent to which the City firms are carrying out pro bono work, although the lack of resources is slowing the process.

In high street firms, we all find ourselves doing work which will not be billed.We can hardly complain about the extent of the coverage of legal affairs in the last month.

We started with the divorce white paper.

It is rather like a curate's egg.

The removal of bitterness from divorce would be a very good thing.

Whether that can be achieved by changing the grounds of divorce remains to be seen.There is the potential for more bitterness if one party to the marriage feels aggrieved at the financial outcome.

Sadly the government's proposals increase this with the risk that the poorer party, usually the wife, is not able to obtain on legal aid the same quality of advice and representation as the richer.Mediation may help in some cases, but it is naive not to recognise that the hurt arises from the circumstances of the breakdown.

Bitterness may follow.

This makes it hard to achieve a negotiated or mediated settlement.We then have the legal ai d issues.

We were first with our ideas.

We accept that the total bill for legal aid cannot continue to rise.

The question is how we can best use the resources available.

Our proposals will allow the government to restore the cuts in eligibility and extend legal aid to some tribunals.

They accept an increased role for mediation and other dispute resolution, they propose the removal of double manning both on the part of solicitors and the Bar.Although the proposals are radical in some ways, they are workable and they will preserve the best of a system we have operated for the last 45 years.The day before the government's paper the Labour party published its view of the future.

It differs very little from the government's.

One solicitor has remarked that reading this almost drove him to suicide.

He had thought a change of government would restore access to justice.There are even suggestions of a referral to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

The suggestion that the profession is not involved in cut-throat competition will evoke hollow laughter from most conveyancers.

All this will achieve is a further waste of time and money.The green paper is a more immediate threat to our legally aided clients.

I have still not heard a satisfactory reply to the question what happens when the money in one region runs out? Do we have to wait for the next financial year? If the government is capable of forecasting accurately the amount needed, why do we need cash limiting at all? Block funding, which to my mind seems to be synonymous with competitive tendering, has the potential to reduce significantly the choice of solicitor.It also has the risk of driving small firms out of business.

Although the Lord Chancellor has been at pains to emphasise that the contracts will be offered to small firms, the reality is that the larger firms are more likely to fulfil the criteria for tendering.

I have serious worries for the high street firms which will see clients going to their competitors for legal aid work.

Will they then return? The government may argue that this is not its concern.It all comes back to our problem of our standing in the community.

The press seems to support any policy which will hurt the lawyers.

They ignore the fact that it is access to justice which will be the main victim of these proposed changes.It is disheartening to read that the reason for the proposals is the rising cost of legal aid, when all the signs are that the cost is now under control.We also appear to be blamed for things which are out of our control, such as court procedures.

The issue of the cost of fraud trials and legal aid for the 'rich', which are not addressed by the green paper, are also quoted in support of the government.Clearly we have a battle to change public perception and I hope that national law week will help do this.

The legal aid proposals will be discussed at a conference in London on 19 June when the Lord Chancellor and the shadow Lord Chancellor will attend.

I hope you will come too.

The time for responses to the government's paper is short, the end of August, so do get your views into them before then.May I thank those firms which have taken part in our recent survey.

The Solicitors Indemnity Fund provides regional figures for gross fees, but that is only turnover.

We wanted information about staffing, profitability and management.

It will help us to advise firms on these issues.

I know that completing questionnaires is time consuming.

I am grateful to all involved.