HILARY SIDDLEIf you live in the real world, as I do, of hitting monthly billing targets, monitoring new matters, and dealing on a daily basis with your client's demands, you will ask what relevance office-holder elections and the reform of the Council have for you.

The activities at Chancery Lane over the past months have been disastrous for the profession and have damaged our reputation with government and the public.

Our reputation is vital for the survival of the profession.

Our reputation determines whether we are treated with respect, or with contempt.

Our reputation affects us all, from the large international City firms competing in world markets to legal aid practitioners on the high street.

Legal aid solicitors are angered by low levels of remuneration and profitability and depressed by being constantly criticised and undervalued.

Our reputation is affected by the quality of the leadership from Council and the office-holders.

We need people who can represent a very diverse profession, in a constructive and inclusive way.

We need people who can work with others, not against them.

We need people who are more concerned about representing the interests of the profession than their own interests.

I have been urged to stand as Deputy Vice-President by people who believe I have those qualities.

During the last five years, I have chaired the family law committee through a period of major law reform and have represented the profession with the Lord Chancellor, government ministers, senior civil servants and the judiciary.

I have the support and respect of fellow Council members and if we are to get the Law Society to deliver on its core obligations, it is essential that the President and other office-holders have the support of Council, so that they work together.

When Council and the office-holders are at total odds, the Law Society becomes ineffective and discredited.

Council members have been accused of being 'out of touch' and not understanding the problems of 'ordinary' solicitors.

Like many Council members, I am actively involved in working in and managing my firm and dealing with clients on a day-to-day basis.

I understand the problems of practice.

I experience them every day.

My firm has a legal aid franchise in crime, family and mental health.

I know all about the frustrations of dealing with the Legal Services Commission under contracting.

We also have a substantial private client practice.

As clients become more sophisticated, we have to run that little bit harder to keep ahead of the game.

We live in a time of constant change.As a result, stress affects more solicitors, from those newly qualified through to the middle-aged and people who cannot afford to retire.

We cannot ignore these problems.

Neither should we underestimate the opportunities available for the profession.

We have to meet the challenges of the future with confidence.Hilary Siddle is Council member for Cumbria and Lancaster