The Law Society regards the relationship between the solicitor and the client as so important that this week it is launching a special guide on the subject.

Championed by the current President, Tony Girling and the immediate Past President, Martin Mears, and written by solicitor and journalist Patrick Stevens, the 100-page book will be sent to every practice in the country.The initial results of a consultation with 30 firms which have evaluated the guide's practical usefulness already sound encouraging.

The general view is that, providing solicitors actually read it, this is one piece of Chancery Lane literature that can really make a difference.

For Mr Mears, Mr Girling and Jayne Farrin, head of Customer Focus at the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS), and the driving force behind the initiative, the message at the heart of the campaign is clear: better client care means fewer complaints.

Mr Mears, editor of the guide, says: 'Plainly the client care message is not getting through.

We need a user-friendly guide which high street practices will relate to because of the way it's written.' Echoing those sentiments, Mr Girling adds: 'The vast majority of complaints to the OSS is in reality about poor client care.'This requires a change of attitude in the profession.

Yet many client care offenders believe their clients are getting a superb service.The problem of how to get the client care message across is not a new one -- the Law Society has been banging on about client relations for years.

However, asking Mr Stevens to write the guide represents a new approach.

In the section of the guide on the 'implementation' of good client care procedures he acknowledges in an empathetic way that this is the 'hardest part of the process'.

The guide explains: 'you may find that although you know that certain of your practices are contrary to good client care, ingrained habits in the firm make it difficult to effect change.'Mr Mears said the idea behind the guide was to use a style that neither patronised nor bullied and was free from management jargon.

Mr Stevens' writing, which Mr Mears describes as 'witty and perceptive', aim gently to awaken solicitors from their professional practice slumbers.

A whole host of professions, including most recently the accountants, have discovered that humour reaches the parts more serious campaigns cannot reach.

Others have found that too flippant an approach can leave the campaign directors with egg on their faces.

The Law Society is looking for a middle way.

The guide uses examples of best and worse practice, sprinkled with useful precedents which can be used to immediate effect.As an example of how not to win your client over, a letter begins, 'Dear Sir, You are required to attend for interview with our Miss Bloggs at .

.

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on .

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.' This, the guide says, may have been an approach acceptable for army conscripts in 1917 but has no place in a modern law firm.The OSS's Ms Farrin says much of the material in the guide is drawn from what the OSS and its predecessor, the Solicitors Complaints Bureau, have observed in the last few years.

She explains: 'It's based on our experience of how solicitors get themselves into situations that we think are avoidable.'Mr Mears adds: 'My firm is paranoid about any complaint getting as far as the OSS and we would do virtually anything to sort it out before it gets there.

We've got to get others to think like that.'Mr M ears, who is the Law Society's lead Council member on client care matters admits that when he was first approached to take on this responsibility he was sceptical about the idea.

'I thought this was just window dressing and a cosmetic exercise,' he says.

'When I got into it I realised it was nothing of the sort and that it dealt with fundamentals.'Sole practitioners Robert Howard in Plymouth and Vanessa Lloyd Platt in London are two solicitors who commented on the guide as part of the Law Society's consultation.

Mr Howard says sole practitioners do not always have the necessary procedures in place to deal with complaints.

'This guide is excellent for sole practitioners and small practices which want to know the best way to set up such systems,' he adds.

Ms Lloyd Platt, a divorce lawyer, thinks the guide will have an important role to play in the education of trainee solicitors in handling clients.

She say it will help to fill the gap between law school teaching and the art of client care in real practice.

The only complaint Ms Lloyd Platt has of the manual is the absence of guidance on how to avoid alienating the client when trying to satisfy the franchise requirements which stipulate that the lawyer must take down a large amount of personal information during the initial interview.The OSS admits that the guide may not be of any use to those firms which have excellent client care procedures.

But Ms Farrin says there is enough evidence to suggest there are many firms which don't have that level of client care.

Mr Mears expects this to change: 'Within two to three years we ought to see a reduction of at least 20 per cent in the number of complaints and this manual is an aid in achieving that.'