I congratulate the Law Society Council on its recent vote to extend the exemption route for higher rights of audience until December 2006, subject to the Lord Chancellor's consent (see [2005] Gazette, 29 September, 5).


However, one still questions why this abolition was thought necessary, since those solicitors able to qualify under the exemption route would have more experience of advocacy and practice in general than pupil barristers who attain full rights of audience after six months' non-practising pupillage.


The Law Society, for no apparently good reason, has set on a train of events that will signal the end of solicitor advocacy, as the other qualifying route will be deemed too expensive for many, and in particular those practising criminal law, who have seen their fees butchered over the past decade.


I wish to see a Law Society that is committed to promoting competition, not hindering it, and call on the council to ensure that the exemption route remains well beyond the end of 2006.


Andrew Keogh, Tuckers, Manchester