ANTHONY BOGANTo explain my decision to stand for Vice-President this year, it would be tempting simply to refer to an editorial comment in the Solicitors Journal on 8 March 1996.'To most solicitors, the proposals made by the strategy committee to reform the Law Society Council are the equivalent of moving around the furniture and ignoring the fact that the building is about to fall down; now is the time for the profession to finally bite the bullet and separate the regulatory functions of the Law Society from its role as a trade union for its members; the present disruption at the Society is symptomatic of the major question which was avoided in the Society's strategy plan - is its role tenable? Our answer is no, and now is the time to plan a division of the Law Society into two bodies - before it breaks up in public disarray.

(Divided we stand!)That was more than four years ago.

In the intervening period, the Law Society has lurched from one crisis to the next because it has failed to recognise that in a consumer society, there is an impossible conflict between regulation and representation when both functions are discharged by the same organisation.The Society's dual role is no longer tenable.

If anybody has a lingering doubt, look at the facts: only 10% of solicitors think that it does a good job in promoting their interests.

What do the other 90% think? As a public regulator, the Society's role is nothing to boast about - an extra 10 million last year spent on the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors and powers reserved in the Access to Justice Act 1999 to take regulation from us if we do not set our house in order.Michael Napier and David McIntosh support the status quo - but with greater emphasis on regulation.

Robert Sayer and I support aseparation of function - and want the Law Society to return to its roots and become an effective representative body, just like the American Bar Association or the British Medical Association.If you agree with us, you are not alone.

Independent research commissioned by Milton Keynes and District Law Society last month established that a majority of solicitors thought that the Law Society should separate its dual roles and concentrate on representation and promotion.

They also supported open elections for all office-holders and an extended presidential term.

It makes sense, because we badly need some continuity.

These elections are terribly important because they will decide the future role of the Law Society in modern Britain.

The choice is simple: a bare regulator that could be redundant five years from now, or an intelligent, representative body that will endure for generations of solicitors to come.The Law Society belongs to you.

If you want it to promote your interests you must support Sayer and Bogan.

If you want it to become a regulatory quango, vote for Napier and McIntosh.Anthony Bogan is Council member for Surrey