Advocating Caution


At the time when the courts have accepted, after much reluctance, that there is a separate and distinct category of lawyers interposed between solicitors and banisters, any review of the position of solicitor-advocates must proceed with caution (see [2006] Gazette, 7 December, 3).



Solicitors who are authorised to practise as advocates by the Law Society can now do so independent of their status as solicitors.



Government departments that maintain panels of advocates now describe all applicants as advocates, irrespective of whether they are barristers or solicitors. It follows, therefore, that a review board may have to consider setting up a faculty of advocates for those solicitors who practise exclusively as advocates without wishing to join or return to the bar.



Diane Long, Fahm & Co, Blackwood, South Wales