I suppose it is the function of influential thinktanks to take away one’s breath. The College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute (‘Scrap training contracts’, see [2009] Gazette, 24 September, 1) certainly does that. New entrants to the profession are overqualified? I don’t think so.

In my experience the opposite is true. New entrants to the profession are capable of assimilating facts and may in time acquire a specialist knowledge of a certain area of work. But many are grossly under-qualified in the sense that they do not have an overall grasp of legal principles common to all aspects of legal practice. In other words, they do not see how the legal patchwork is knitted together to form a serviceable quilt.

The proposal to describe as ‘solicitor’ everyone who has completed the legal practice course is equally offensive to those of us who have seen a steady erosion in the quality and status of the profession over the years. I used to see a solicitor as an ‘homme d’affaires’, capable of providing support and advice in response to diverse needs from diverse quarters; a friend, a counsellor, a sounding board, a source of wisdom. Is that concept so hopelessly outdated?

John Alcock, Davis Blank Furniss, Manchester