Peter Scott's article on non-lawyer investment in law firms should make your blood run cold (see [2006] Gazette, 12 October, 11).


This is a foretaste of what will come. If the public wants it, fine - but lawyers will get the blame when things go wrong. As a profession, it will serve us right. Each of us at some stage was taught some company law. Nearly all of us seem to have forgotten its elementary principles.



The only significant company law duty of a company's directors is to look after the interests of shareholders - in other words, to maximise profits.



Unless 'doing a good job' or 'doing the right thing' happens to coincide with maximising profits, to do either of those will be in breach of the directors' legal duties.



If the shareholders are solicitors (or accountants, widget-makers, etcetera) they can chose to put the practice of the law (or accounting or widget-making) first. But if, post-Clementi reforms, the shareholders are simply financial investors, nothing but profit will matter.



Roderick Ramage, Stafford