A FRIEND ON THE BOARDWith the appointment of Henry Hodge OBE as deputy chairman of the Legal Aid Board, solicitors have gained an influential friend close to the top of the legal aid administration.

But Mr Hodge, who has resigned from the Law Society's Council to join the board, could find himself in the firing line when the government's white paper is published this June.Mr Hodge, aged 52, the Society's £Deputy Vice-President in 1994/95 and a vice-chairman of the Society of Labour Lawyers, runs a legal aid practice in north London.

He insists his role at the LAB will be far from ornamental.

Exactly what the £9000-a-year, one day a week post will entail has not yet been defined, but he says: 'I have joined on the basis that I would have one of the leading roles on the board itself.'In the face of suggestions that the board, faced with the prospect of a Labour government, sees him as a strategic political counterweight to Sir Tim Chessels, who is associated with the Conservative Party, Mr Hodge is reticent.

You may think that, I could not possibly comment, is the gist of his reply.

His professional background, as the former legal aid practitioner's voice on the Council, is the main attraction, he contends.As final touches are put to a legal aid white paper that is expected to be greeted with anguish by the legal profession, Mr Hodge recognises that he will have his work cut out: 'The board is the major provider of the living of lots of firms of solicitors and that doesn't make for a desperately easy relationship,' he says.He makes no secret of his unhappiness at the direction in which the reforms are heading, although his language is more muted than in the past.

'I am not a great supporter of exclusive contracts and I remain very troubled about cash limits,' he says.At heart, though, Mr Hodge is a realist.

When legal aid franchises were introduced two years ago, his own firm was among the first to apply.

And if the government of the day is determined to bring in contracting, he says, 'then it is vital in the interests of the profession and the public that there should be someone like me involved in the in-house discussions'.He leaves the Council, after 12 years as a member, with a sense of relief, he says.

The way the recent conveyancing fees debate went was a particular disappointment.

'It's a great worry that the legitimate wish of the profession to get a decent income has been able to be portrayed as greedy solicitors trying to feather their own nests,' he says.A HARD LABOUR STANCEPaul Boateng MP, the solicitor-turned-barrister in line to become 'justice minister' in a Labour government, is a man frustratingly close to the Holy Grail of political power.

He is taking few risks this near to a general election, choosing his words judicially, so lowering the odds of a damaging hostage to fortune undermining his chance of office.On legal aid, Mr Boateng offers few specifics beyond what was laid down by Walworth Road 11 months ago in Labour's 'Access to justice' proposals for civil justice reforms.

Efficiency, cost effectiveness, value for money, the free market and the consumer are the curiously familiar watchwords of 'New Labour'.The legal aid budget will get 'not a penny more' from a Labour government, he warns, repeating the party's refrain that better access to justice will be achieved through redistribution of funds within the existing budget.

A 'community legal service', run by the regional legal aid offices, will bid for funds from the national budget to meet local needs.

In turn the service will be free to put contracts to tender.Private practice will receive no favours when competing with advice bureaux and law centres for funds, says Mr Boateng.

But he will not reveal what he believes is the correct balance between public and private involvement.

Private practitioners would compete for funds in a 'free but regulated market', he says.On the question of pro bono work by solicitors, Mr Boateng slams the Law Society for being 'negligent' in this area and failing to follow the Bar's example.

'If the Society spent a little less time contemplating its own navel and a little more examining the public interest, things might not be quite as they are,' he says.Mr Boateng denies that he has ever called for the restoration of eligibility for legal aid to earlier levels, although the aim of the community legal service would be to expand the number of people entitled to it.

'What I complain about is an ever-increasing bill and an ever-diminishing number of beneficiaries.

That cannot be right,' he says.His concern is not only for those who have fallen out of the legal aid net.

It is also 'intolerable' that middle income earners are being taxed and yet 'get nothing whatsoever out of it'.But he rejects any parallel with taxing the better off to pay for welfare benefits for the poor: 'What I'm not going to accept is the legal aid system reduced to a legal welfare system.

That it was never designed to be.'