King Canute knew he could not stop the tide; he just had to prove it to his courtiers.

And now the legal profession's courtiers are realising that nothing can stop the tide of change, whether the undercurrent is competition law, anti-terrorism provisions or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The monarchs at last week's International Bar Association conference were a clutch of senior City lawyers.

They can foresee - to stretch the metaphor - the entire sandcastle being washed away while others stand around refusing to believe the tide is entitled to do so.

Are the profession's core values inviolate? What are the core values? And is this a matter for lawyers alone to decide or should society, for whose benefit these rights exist, be driving the debate? Independence, confidentiality and avoiding conflicts of interest are rightly at the heart of legal ethics - but they are not so sacrosanct that inroads into confidentiality have not been made around the world in the name of cutting off funds to criminal and terror groups.

The question is: where should the new balance be struck?

The Clementi review puts England and Wales at the forefront of these tensions, so the call for lawyers to engage constructively rather than defensively with society in an open debate should resonate loudly.

But for all the fine words, perhaps the real issue is how to go about involving a public either indifferent or hostile to the profession.