Do solicitors make good businessmen? That has been one of the perennial questions facing the legal profession for the past ten to 15 years.

There is no doubt that they are successful professionals - there are more lawyers in this country than there are in most places in the world.

Yet when it comes to the basics of running a profitable and efficient business there are still problems, as highlighted by the most recent annual survey of the profession by consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

And it appears that two of the biggest issues are an inability on the part of some firms to rein in partnership growth, and at the same time a failure to adopt efficient billing procedures.

Most young lawyers still aspire to partnership; firms maintain this tradition by continually sharing out their equity, and then arguably carrying older equity partners who are not pulling their weight.

At the same time law firm margins have been shrinking - owing to the wider economic climate - and their indemnity insurance premiums have risen.

And all this falls against a backdrop of poor cash flow as traditionally firms are reluctant to press their clients for prompt payment.

How does this shake down? Ultimately, the practising profession will probably continue to grow, albeit not as quickly as it has over the past decade.

But the number of firms could begin to shrink as those that cannot get the business equations right merge or are taken over.