Flying solo It is time to redress some of the ill-informed comments made at the S2K Conference by luminaries such as Digby Jones, director general CBI, and Ronnie Fox, of City law firm Fox Williams (see [2000] Gazette, 9 November, 8).

Mr Jones suggested that sole practitioners who cannot get on lenders' panels should leave the field and 'reshape their practices' rather than continuing to fight a battle they will not win and that sole practitioners should concentrate on an area of law in which they excel and then 'exploit the niche'.

Mr Fox stated that 'clients take a risk when they instruct a sole practitioner that they don't take when they instruct a larger partnership'.

Mr Jones' comments contrast starkly with the decision of the Law Society Council only days later, coincidentally, to challenge mortgage lenders which will not instruct the borrower's solicitor if he or she is a sole practitioner.

And it is reassuring to note that the Society has also indicated that if need be it will invite the Office of Fair Trading to investigate this discriminatory practice, which unfairly restricts the clients' choice of solicitor.

Clearly, the Law Society sees a future for sole practitioners and the valuable role they play.

Mr Fox's comments are equally ill-informed and demonstrate how out of touch both City firms and organisations such as the CBI are with an element of the profession that represents numerically about 5% of all solicitors and, in terms of actual practices, something approaching 20% of the profession.Peter Williams, chairman, Sole Practitioners Group