January The year opened with the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay, giving an early indication that big changes were in store for the legal aid system.

He mooted the idea of a cash limit for the legal aid budget - a suggestion duly savaged by Labour, who criticised the reforms for being 'Treasury driven'.

Shadow ministers said a Labour government would engage in its own radical review of the civil justice system.1995 also started badly for Fred West's former solicitor, Howard Ogden.

He was requested to appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, accused of attempting to use confidential information for sale.

FebruaryThere was a glimmer of hope for solicitors' firms, as a new survey showed a moderate growth in business.

But the Centre for Interfirm Comparison survey also found that firms' profits and staff take-home pay had barely changed over the past two years, despite reductions in support staff by as much as a third.Home Secretary Michael Howard bowed to pressure from lawyers and unveiled a shorter police caution.

The 37-word caution replaced the 60-word monster introduced as a result of restrictions on the right to silence in the Criminal Justice Act.The Law Society celebrated its 150th anniv-ersary of the granting of its royal charter.MarchAn outcry followed revelations that legal aid expenditure for 1994/95 was £100 million short of provisions.

Law Society officials demanded that the Lord Chancellor honour his promise to improve eligibility limits.The Family Homes and Domestic Violence Bill received its second reading in the House of Lords, and was put on the fast-track Jellicoe process, designed to speed non-contentious legislation through Parliament.

Months later, the bill ran into trouble after a high profile campaign by the Daily Mail over proposed residence rights for unmarried partners.Law Society Council members Martin Mears and Robert Sayer stunned the Chancery Lane establishment by announcing that they would stand for election against the council-backed candidates for president and vice-president.AprilSpring dawned with the newly created Courts Services Agency announcing th at civil court litigants would have to cough up another £20 million a year to meet cost recovery targets.

Courts service chief executive Michael Huebner launched the agency by telling journalists that he wanted 75% of court costs recovered from court users - an increase of 15% over 1994 levels.The Law Society was rocked by allegations that a senior male council member had sexually harassed a female council member.

The charges were levelled by the council member herself, presidential candidate Eileen Pembridge.

Within several days, Cameron Markby Hewitt partner John Young withdrew as the Society's official presidential candidate.

His decision came amidst a media frenzy following revelations that Ms Pembridge had reported Mr Young for sexual harassment to Chancery Lane senior officers two years previously.London firms Nabarro Nathanson and Turner Kenneth Brown put the finishing touches on a long-discussed merger deal.

The two firms became one from May.Legislation requiring judges to retire at 70 came into force.

May Law Society officials attempted to steal a march on Lord Mackay by releasing an alternative to the green paper on legal aid a week before the official document was due.

The Chancery Lane version called for a fees advisory body to set guidelines for lawyers' pay.

Solicitors and barristers of seven years' standing, said the Society, should get a salary comparable to that of a GP - between £40,000 and £45,000 a year.

When the green paper appeared it included widely predicted proposals for block contracts and cash-limited budgets for criminal, family and civil non-family work.Young British lawyers were working longer hours than any of their European counterparts, according to a survey from the European Young Bar Association.

Young UK lawyers worked on average 45 hours a week, said the EYBA.The Law Society launched National Law Week, a programme of events around the country designed to raise the profile of lawyers and emphasise the importance of the rule of law.June A hot summer at Chancery Lane began with Solicitors Complaints Bureau head Veronica Lowe teaming up with Law Society Secretary-General John Hayes to produce a radical blueprint for replacing the nine-year-old bureau.

They called for the creation of a new body which would be chaired by a layman.

Meanwhile, legal services ombudsman Michael Barnes warned the Society that it had one last chance to come to grips with complaints handling.

Mr Barnes was noting a 28% increase in complaints to his office.Bar traditionalists defeated proposals at the council's AGM which would have allowed barristers to form partnerships with each other and with solicitors, as well as allowing them direct access to clients.As the month ended, Lord Woolf's long-awaited interim report on civil justice was released to generally warm reviews from both sides of the legal profession.

His 124 recommendations were designed to transfer responsibility for the management of litigation from lawyers to judges.

July Regulations were introduced allowing lawyers to operate on a conditional fee basis in personal injury, insolvency and European Court of Human Rights cases.

Lord Mackay's provisions for a 100% uplift survived an 11th-hour amendment in the Lords.

But a clash loomed over conditional fee terms of engagement between solicitors and barristers.Martin Mears and Robert Sayer ushered in a new order at Chancery Lane as they were elected as president and vice-president of the Law Society respectively.

Mr Mears polled 11,550 votes, easily seeing off his nearest challenger, Henr y Hodge, who recorded 8254 votes.

There was a 36% turnout.AugustBournemouth solicitor John Edge launched a one-man crusade to stamp out cut-price conveyancing.

He said his conveyancing fee initiative - which began as a pitch for guideline fee scales to be backed up by a practice rule - had drawn more than 7000 letters of support within a few weeks.

By the end of the month, Mr Edge and new boy Society council member Anthony Bogan were delivering crate-loads of letters to Chancery Lane.Criminal law practitioners too were kicking up a fuss.

The leader of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, Judith Naylor, announced that her members were considering leaving the Solicitors Indemnity Fund because they thought they could negotiate a better deal on the open insurance market.A Gazette poll revealed that three-quarters of the personal injury specialist solicitors surveyed disapproved of the sale of accident victims' names to law firms.A survey showed about 60% of top quoted plcs had recently changed law firms.SeptemberResearch revealed that only about half of the recently revised police caution could be understood by the general public.

Proposals were first mooted that the role of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund might be restricted to the 'insurer of last resort' for cut-price conveyancers.

The radical measure was put forward by Law Society vice-president Robert Sayer.A row blew up over a controversial severance package worth more than £80,000 paid to Solicitors Complaints Bureau director Veronica Lowe, who announced that she would retire from the bureau at the end of October.

At a specially convened council meeting, Law Society president Martin Mears attempted to convince members that the deal - agreed independently by Secretary-General John Hayes and Ms Lowe - should be reviewed.

His proposal was defeated by the council and the pay off was rubber stamped.OctoberHigh street law firms were pilloried by a report in the Consumers Association magazine Which? Its report hit out at solicitors for allegedly making potentially costly mistakes, and giving 'shoddy' and in many cases 'inappropriate' advice.

Fees were also heavily criticised as varying wildly for essentially the same pieces of work.

US sporting hero OJ Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his former wife and her male friend in Los Angeles after one of the longest running and high profile criminal trials in any common law jurisdiction.

Mr Simpson still faced the possibility of a civil action for unlawful killing.And another London firm, Nabarro Nathanson, saw potential merger plans with New York-based Weil Gotshal & Manges come to nothing.

However, the US firm said it would stay in London, having engaged former Clifford Chance banking partner Maurice Allen to lead its UK recruitment drive.Lord Mackay was forced to delay the passage of the Family Homes and Domestic Violence Bill following attacks from right-wing MPs spurred on by like-minded elements of the media.

The Lord Chancellor's proposed divorce reforms were also threatened by the self-anointed family traditionalists.

But, by the time of the Queen's Speech several weeks later, Lord Mackay had managed to retain the no-fault divorce provisions and, remarkably, to re-incorporate the domestic violence elements in a new Family Law Bill.NovemberAs winter closed in, criminal law practitioners took another step towards opting out of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund after a report found that firms could be insured on the open market for as little as £50 per year.The first Law Society Council elections s ince Martin Mears took office saw two sole practitioners and two high street solicitors fighting to represent the West Country and Gwent seat.

The election was won by Helen Davis, who polled twice as many votes as her nearest rival.A report from accountants Smith & Williamson showed that nearly 80% of solicitors surveyed thought law firm merger and acquisition activity would increase during the next year.DecemberSolicitor circuit judge Richard Gee was arrested in connection with an alleged mortgage fraud.

He was remanded on police bail, and was due to return to Belgravia police station in the new year.

Mr Gee was immediately suspended from his duties by the Lord Chancellor until the outcome of the police investigation.The year finished with the normally reticent Lord Mackay again embroiled in a public row.

This time, the Lord Chancellor found himself in a scrap with fellow cabinet member and Conservative party chairman Brian Mawhinney.

The former denied reports that in a speech he proposed to attack the judiciary for superseding parliament through judicial review.

Mr Mawhinney was alleged to have leaked a copy of the speech to the press.

Ultimately, Lord Mackay never gave the speech.The dispute between two environmental campaigners and the US fast food giant McDonalds - better known as the 'McLibel trial' - became the longest civil case in British history, crashing through the 200-day barrier by the middle of the month.

The McLibel record coincided with a Court of Appeal ruling which reduced a libel award paid to rock star Elton John from £350,000 to £75,000.