On the face of it Roger Jones, a 50-year-old middle-class male, is an unlikely champion of t he political struggle waged by women against sexual harassment.

But there can be no doubting the passion behind this Cardiff solicitor's mission to expose and punish the people responsible.Law Society Council member and chair of the equal opportunities committee, Mr Jones says he has heard stomach-turning details of discrimination in the legal profession.

And, since the well-publicised furore during last summer's presidential election, when Vice-President John Young was accused of harassment, many more women have come forward to complain, he says.He offers anecdotal evidence of specific cases where young women solicitors were discriminated against.

A woman who worked in her firm's mergers and acquisitions department was moved to private client work because, she was told, 'women are such naturally sympathetic people'.

Another woman's promotion was 'blatantly blocked' on account of her being pregnant.

The story that most enrages Mr Jones is one of an assistant solicitor employed after training with the same firm.

'She was asked every morning to make coffee for her employer.

Then she was told to clean his shoes .

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.

the woman remained silent through fear of losing her job,' he says with quiet fury.He suspects that the problem lies mainly within the smaller provincial towns, where jobs are harder to come by and women may, for family reasons, be less able to move than their male counterparts.

Also, he argues, 'there is an inherent inequality in the partnership structure of many firms that makes it difficult for a woman to become pregnant and take the appropriate time off'.This kind of harassment and discrimination must be stamped out, says Mr Jones, adding that the Society's efforts to do just that have gone unsung too long.

He points to a new practice rule, approved by the Council in July 1995.

Now, where firms have no anti-discrimination policy of their own, such complaints will automatically be deemed to be a disciplinary matter and open to resolution under the grievance procedure at the Solicitors Complaints Bureau.He is clearly concerned that the manifest hostility of President Martin Mears to what Mr Mears has labelled the 'discrimination industry' does the equal opportunities committee's public image no favours.

Yet Mr Jones repeatedly stresses that he accepts that the President believes in equal opportunities in principle.'All this so-called "industry" -- the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and so on -- is doing is calling for machinery that imposes decent behaviour in the workplace,' says Mr Jones.

He adds: 'In the law, as elsewhere, the "moral imperative" hasn't worked, so there's got to be a mechanism for the victims of discrimination to use.'Another area of difference between Mr Jones and Mr Mears concerns the Society's annual equal opportunities award, the winner of which was announced this week.

Mr Mears has declined to present the award this year.

With, he says, the backing of two ethnic minority committee members, he deemed the application of the award-winner, Kirklees Metropolitan Council, 'of insufficient merit'.The committee is understood to have had to extend the applications deadline before any candidates emerged.

In the end just five applied.

Mr Jones and a panel of four other Society Council members chose Kirklees and commended two other applicants.

Mr Jones is adamant that he and the committee are agreed that Kirklees has created a model equal opportunities policy for the profession.

He will present the award himself.Equally controversially, Mr Mears has argued t hat there are relatively few cases of discrimination and that for women the climate in the profession has improved in recent years.

Mr Jones rejects this.

In his experience there is still a 'vast problem'.

And he argued that even if there were only a few cases, that would still be too many.No studies appear to have been done which prove the extent of discrimination in the profession.

Mr Jones argues that many women will not jeopardise their jobs and careers by complaining of harassment, so the extent of the problem is kept hidden.

If, however, formal complaints alone are the benchmark, then incidents of discrimination would seem to be rare.In the past three years, only 58 cases have been considered by the Solicitors Complaints Bureau, says Mr Jones.

And none of these has been referred by the adjudication and appeals committee to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The equal opportunities committee has requested that the SCB provide an annual report on discrimination complaints, including an analysis of their outcomes.The issue of enforcement of the Society's anti-discrimination rules is not easy, says Mr Jones.

What is really needed is for a high profile case, where there is prima facie evidence, to be as far as the SDT to highlight the Society's resolve.Less formal procedures would, he believes, encourage women to feel less inhibited about making complaints.

At present the SCB occasionally refers misconduct complaints to 'local conciliation officers' around the country.

Mr Jones' committee is suggesting that case workers could be trained specifically to advise informally on complaints of discrimination and harassment.Notwithstanding the depth of his concern for disadvantaged and abused women solicitors, Mr Jones is hopeful that matters are improving.

The number of women entering the profession is a good sign, he says.

But this alone is not enough to eradicate deep-seated prejudices.

'I would hope that the seriousness with which the Law Society is taking these issues will in itself make an impression upon those who are determined not to recognise the necessity of equal opportunity,' he says.