Professor Stephen Mayson in your recent report and Rick Barrow in his letter (see [2008] Gazette, 20 March, 1, 13) seem to think that the legal training required to qualify as a solicitor is somehow less relevant to society now than it was in
the past.



Trained lawyers are unique in their thinking. We are trained to look at causes and consequences, not just risk.  Our ethical thinking is about the client as well as ourselves, so we are perhaps less vulnerable to the pressures of pure greed. If we are being moved into the modern world by non-lawyers who think we are irrelevant, it is they who will suffer in the long run.  Indeed, one could say they are suffering already.



The banking sector used to be professional. Banking came to a crossroads in the 1980s, choosing the route of expansion and profit over that of professionalism.  Many bankers took early retirement when they saw the way things were going. They were not willing to prostitute their professionalism to sell more insurance.  



The subsequent winners did not include the customers. It is senior bankers and their lookalikes who made vast sums of money out of the credit boom. The customers are paying the price now.



Our profession is coming to that same crossroads. Is it too late to take the professional route and insist that what we offer is better than what politicians and pundits say they want from us?  Or do we let the big boys in the profession continue their pursuit of profit at all costs?



Peter Ryder, Middlewich, Cheshire