Political football I read with interest RG Le Pla's letter with regard to pro bono matters and unfortunately found it to be based on rather faulty premises (see [2000] Gazette, 16 November, 20).

To argue, as RG Le Pla appears to be, that professional responsibility flows only from legislative compulsion is to misunderstand the basis of the profession's moral obligations to the client and society as a whole.

I would suggest that these obligations, while stemming in an immediate sense from the various conduct and other rules applicable to the profession, come primarily from the overarching obligations owed bysolicitors as a consequence of their position in relation to other members of society.

I fail to see why such obligations could not constitute professional responsibilities or why it should be considered 'arrogant' to hold this view, as RG Le Pla's letter seemed to indicate.

It is regrettable that the issue of pro bono work has been used as a political football or solely as a mechanism of PR but this does not, or rather should not, detract from the inherent responsibility that we have to ensure that the provision of legal services is not restricted to certain groups within our society.

There is always a clear need for members of the public to be apprised of their legal rights, and to ignore this is to make a mockery of the concept of justice within the operation of our legal system on a day-to-day basis.

I agree that the prospect of legislative compulsion in this area is undesirable because of the increased stress that it would put upon every solicitor but this hardly constitutes a valid argument for the Law Society not to exert even gentle pressure upon firms to make some form of contribution to pro bono work as a whole.

Will Cummins, solicitor, London