Sue Nelson's response to the article by Viv Williams was disappointing.


We face enormous challenges in the next few years when the Clementi reforms come in. Add the housing market downturn, the credit crunch and continuing legal aid pay cuts, and I believe we have reached a tipping point.



Huge numbers of small and medium-sized firms will vanish - Professor Stephen Mayson estimates 3,000. Astute firms will adapt and prosper. For firms ignoring the message the prospect is less rosy. The lucky among them will be taken over or merged into professionally managed firms. The unlucky will see their business become increasingly less profitable with no successor practice - leaving them to struggle on indefinitely or shut up shop, while paying handsomely for the privilege with redundancy issues magnified by run-off indemnity cover.



Viv Williams's advice is sound. Any solicitor who is serious about running their practice as a business rather than a hobby needs regular management information - daily information may be ideal, but partners need that information at least monthly. Simply putting up a brass plaque no longer guarantees every solicitor a cosy retirement. While, as solicitors, we must have the highest professional standards, ultimately we are a business selling legal services.



Tim Bishop, Bonallack & Bishop, Salisbury