Efficiency or death

A clear warning cry emanated from a high street practice this week.The managing partner of a Warwickshire-based firm told a group of local businessmen that legal practice has changed immeasurably in the past five years and that economic Darwinism has already kicked in - only the fittest, leanest, and in some cases, biggest will survive.Pundits and legal profession observers have been making the same evolutionary predictions for some time, but this was a heartfelt view from the grass roots, where most of the solicitors' profession practises.

The message was that unless high street firms modernise and adopt the latest technology, many will go to the wall.

Indeed, it is a warning that has even greater resonance as the UK economy teeters on the edge of recession.For some time those same pundits and observers of the legal profession have also been warning of an increasingly fragmented solicitors' branch.

This month, for many that forecast of a splintered profession becomes reality as the so-called City legal practice course - sponsored by an eight-firm consortium form the Square Mile - comes on stream at three teaching institutions.It is difficult not to have some sympathy for those large commercial firms who want their trainees to be able to hit the ground running.

Faced with economic Darwinism, that is how they see survival.