A TIME OF CHANGEThis is a time of change for the country.

The new Government is pursuing its manifesto programme with vigour.

And what I am going to say to you today is that we, as solicitors, need to capitalise on that change.

Change in publicly funded legal services.

Change in the criminal justice system.

Change in commercial practice.And as well as getting used to the idea of change, I also believe we also need to get real about what the public, press and politicians expect of us.

That means an end to internal conflict.

That means being prepared to think the unthinkable.

That means being able -- as a profession -- to find new ways of working.So let's get real about making the profession relevant and fit for the 21st century, because we are deluding ourselves if we think we already are.

And doing nothing is not an option.Staying the same for some solicitors means that they will continue barely to scrape by.

Or they will go under slowly and painfully, sometimes at considerable cost to the rest of the profession.

That's why I'm not prepared to see a small number of practitioners ruin things for everybody else.

That's why [the Law Society] plans tougher action against those who let their clients down -- or worse.MAKING THE LAW SOCIETY BETTEROf course, the Law Society itself needs to tighten up its act too.I've been leading a major new initiative to feed the views of a broad cross-section of the profession into planning how the Law Society can better serve solicitors in the future.

Our consultations will form the basis for three year strategic planning of the Law Society's operations, a review designed to make the Society more efficient, more effective, and above all more relevant to those it serves.FLEXIBILITYThe Government has spoken of the need for flexibility in our labour markets.

Legal practice has to adapt to new markets, perhaps, some would say, beyond recognition.

But we are a young profession.

And we need to listen carefully to our younger members.

They are the future.

Surveys tell us of discontent among assistant solicitors about the way they are forced to work these days.Low quality work.

Presenteeism -- a long hours culture.

The hierarchical structures.

Quality of life issues are going to be increasingly important: that's something all practitioners will need to factor into their management approach.NEW AREAS OF WORKIndeed, it is new forms of practice that lie ahead which will offer us the opportunities to run our careers in a more rewarding way.

The solid professional training and expertise of solicitors leaves us well placed to colonise new areas of work.

There is a clear case for moving away from the litigation mentality of the past -- and the present.Our clients are crying out for less adversarial means of dispute resolution.

Avoiding the risk, the cost and the stress of litigation is something a lot of our clients would welcome.Alternative dispute resolution techniques can be powerful additions to our practices, opening up options for clients and offering them 'one-stop shop' advice.

And we are already taking action.

The Law Society has led the way in developing training standards and a code of practice for family mediators.

We intend to do the same for civil cases generally.In the same way, I am glad that solicitors are opening up to property selling as a new area of work combining conveyancing and house sales in a one-stop shop.

If clients want one-stop shops, let it be solicitors who run them.ENDING UNNECESSARY RESTRICTIONSIt's high time to look at the potential of multi-disciplinary arrangements.

We must work fast to develop the right regulatory structure which will make them work in the consumer interest.Why should we be suspicious of MDPs? And who says we're going to be over-run by accountants? If we don't want to let that happen -- then it won't happen.

MDPs provide the opportunity to offer a broader range of legal and consultancy servic es, for example, in tax planning and personal finance.

Above all, MDPs should appeal to our customers.We need to think about becoming specialised legal consultants as well as generalists.

Some solicitors are against the development of specialist and accreditation schemes and want us all to remain general practitioners.

But I say that is a short-sighted view.OVERSEAS WORKLooking farther afield, we must seek to widen our opportunities abroad, where the market is already considerable.

I will to continue to work hard for liberalisation of rights of practice around the world.

International work brings in £536 million a year in invisible earnings.

Some 25% of staff in the large City firms work abroad.

And I am taking action to broaden the opportunities for our profession.CONDITIONAL FEESConditional fee arrangements, backed up by legal expenses insurance, can help to enfranchise many clients who struggle on at present without the legal help and advice they need.

So I say, the doomsayers who said conditional fees would work against the public interest have been shown to be wrong.

But it is a mistake to think that extending conditional fees means legal aid can simply be abolished for the proceedings concerned.

Conditional fees cannot ensure access to justice unless affordable insurance against the risk of meeting the other side's costs is available.SHAPING THE JUSTICE SYSTEMThe Law Society has made proposals, which have been on the table for the last year, for savings of £130 million on the annual legal aid budget, by cutting out fraud and waste and effective controls on QCs' fees.

It is clearly nonsensical to make legal aid available for cases which have no real connection with this country but have been brought simply because our courts are a convenient forum.

It is also wasteful to allow those skilled in concealing assets to get legal aid when many much poorer are denied.

But I reject entirely the view that seems to be put across in certain sections of the media that legal aid is a happy hunting ground for scroungers -- or a get rich quick scheme for fat cat lawyers.NEW SOLUTIONSUnder a conditional legal aid fund, those receiving legal aid in personal injury cases would pay a percentage of the normal costs of the case as a success fee if they won their case.

A conditional legal aid fund could apply to all civil cases where the plaintiff is seeking to recover money or other property.The individual assessment of risk, currently used for conditional fees should be applied to avoid unfair cross-subsidy between different types of case.Conditional fees will become a common method of funding money claims for private litigants.

There is no reason why the same approach should not be used for legal aid.A conditional legal aid fund could make major savings in the cost of civil legal aid without undermining access to justice.

Those savings can be used to help to restore legal aid to people who are at present deprived of it.We need also to consider alternatives to the ways in which legal aid services have traditionally been provided in the past.Many of us instinctively recoil from the suggestion of a public defender service.

If public defenders meant low-quality under-resourced representation, as has sadly been seen in some American jurisdictions we would be right to recoil.

But why should we assume any public defender service would follow the worst of the overseas models?Another option would be to try out new contracting arrangements with criminal legal aid solicitors.

And can it really be wrong for the Government to ins ist that those undertaking legal aid work are skilled and knowledgeable, especially where the clients are vulnerable.

But the Government should not think that legal aid franchising is the only way of recognising those qualities.

Our criminal justice system can only operate fairly if defendants are represented by lawyers who they have chosen freely: who act independently in the client's interest, and who have the resources to do a proper job.QUALITY ASSURANCEThere is much we as solicitors can do -- and have already done -- in the setting of standards.

Lexcel is the new quality mark for solicitors.

We launched it just last month.

With the backbone of Practice Management Standards, we can deliver a positive and practical response to achieving levels of excellence which can be objectively assessed.That doesn't mean doing away with the individual flair and skills ably put to work by so many in the profession.

But it does mean the ability to shape our own destiny when it comes to setting benchmarks for the quality of service we provide.CIVIL JUSTICEI hope that, whatever the way ahead, ministers stick to the clear principles identified by Lord Woolf.

The government must ensure that adequate resources are provided for the Court Service to bring in the training and infrastructure needed to make the reforms work.

The Law Society must also help the profession to prepare for the Woolf reforms.

Improving our case management skills and budgeting are essential components of good practice management in any event.FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATIONMany applaud the thinking behind the move to set up the new regulatory organisation -- NewRo.

There is some justification for the view that the financial services industry has not moved fast enough on client protection.It is worth reminding everyone, however, that clients who receive financial services from solicitors enjoy an unparalleled degree of consumer protection from the profession's compensation and indemnity funds.The new arrangements could require solicitors to have two regulators and face double the compliance burdens.

There is a danger that solicitors will be deterred from offering financial services at all.

And consumers would lose an important source of independent advice as a result.The Law Society could maintain the day-to-day regulation of firms on the basis that the Society itself would apply the authority's rule book to such firms, either directly, or on a 'contracted' basis.SOLICITORS AND SELF-REGULATIONAlso on the regulatory front, the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors has completed its first year of operation.

A report on those first twelve months will be out in December.There have also been two initiatives aimed at helping solicitors.

The first is the publication of the Client Care Guide, full of practical advice on giving a good service to clients.

Another is the Lawyer Line -- an advice line for solicitors designed to encourage the avoidance of disputes by nipping complaints in the bud with effective, in-house handling procedures.

But we must do more than make the OSS work.

We must as a profession change our attitude to complaints.

We must deal with complaints more swiftly and effectively in our firms so that people have less need to approach the OSS.PRO BONO WORKI endorse wholeheartedly the work of the Solicitors Pro Bono Group.

Its aim is to assist and encourage all solicitors who have an interest in doing pro bono work, no matter where they are located in England and Wales and whatever the size of the practice.Many chose this profession because of an innate sense of justice and the desire to help people in difficulty.

Doing pro bono work can play an important role in revitalising that sense of justice and add to job satisfaction.But the view of the Law Society remains that, if pro bono work is to be effective, it must be done voluntarily.ENTRY TO THE PROFESSIONThe virtual disappearance of local authority discretionary grants now means that budding young solicitors face the prospect of thousands of pounds in debts by the time they reach the end of the road to qualification.

As a result, we run the risk of creating a profession -- and a judiciary -- drawn exclusively from one social class.

That's why -- with the Chairman of the Bar, Robert Owen -- I have written to Education Minister Baroness Blackstone pressing for the restoration of discretionary grants.

As a minimum, we are seeking the extension of the student loans scheme to cover all stages of legal qualification.IMPROVING THE LAW SOCIETYThe Secretary General, Jane Betts, has made significant progress in tightening our management and control structures, and is helping us focus on what the profession is going to need from us in the future.Jane is committed to creating an organisation which gives better value for money, and the reduction of £30 in the practising certificate fee is just the start of what is set to be a wider drive for efficiency.

There is now greater accountability.

We've set up an audit committee, and procedures to ensure proper management and reporting on major projects.

As well as regulating solicitors in the public interest, we have another important responsibility in providing better quality support and leadership for the profession.

Part and parcel of that leadership is providing a 'reality check' for the profession about the demands of the future.Where we lay down standards, we must also provide advice, guidance and practical support to help solicitors meet those standards.

We must strive to be the profession's partner by providing services and advice which focus on helping solicitors to run profitable, efficient practices.