Lord Falconer came to the Law Society Council meeting this week with two aims: first, to praise a profession that often feels under attack from his government, and, second, to exhort it to do more.

The Lord Chancellor made it clear that, in his view, the system does not meet all of its customers' needs - and he emphasised the role solicitors have in working with government to achieve its aims of a 'more diverse, flexible and responsive legal landscape'.

And those solicitors who fail to deal properly with complaints, and a regulatory system that does not do enough to tackle them, will no longer be tolerated.

Few solicitors would argue with his goals.

The concern centres on whether there will be proper regulation of the new system.

Lord Falconer told the council that 'the link between regulation and better services is critical'.

The pressure is on all concerned to live up to those words.