Division will come at a high costThe argument about splitting the Law Society's role in two - with a separate regulator and trade union - has resurfaced of late.

The main reason seems to be that politicians will then be stopped from making political capital out of the profession's failings.This is madness.

Does anyone really think that the medical profession (with its current problems) is raising its public or political status because it is split in two? Given the Society's current capacity for disagreement, separation will simply lead to a more institutionalised form of bickering at greater cost.

Hands up who wants to pay for that?Richard Moorhead, past chairman of the Young Solicitors' Group and senior research fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London