In his short time on the Law Society's Council, the member for Norfolk has ruffled some feathers.Elected on an anti-Chancery Lane platform last July, Martin Mears has devoted the intervening months to exposing the Society's perceived conceits and incompetencies.Hardly a month has gone by without him hav ing a go, either in the Council chamber itself or in the articles he writes regularly in the legal press.His criticisms are delivered in blunt salvos, the language untempered to spare the feelings of either his colleagues on the Council or Chancery Lane staff.

The Society is 'arrogant', 'extravagant' and 'inept', he has claimed.

It 'does a bad job' and has 'no idea how to campaign'.His announcement last week that he would force an election of the Law Society's President - the first for 40 years - was the final straw for many of his fellow Council members who have become increasingly irritated by his persistent poking and prodding at their record.He has taunted them for failing to stand up to the government and its agencies, for lack of foresight of the profession's present problems and for cravenness in the face of pressure groups, leading to an 'unnecessary and unenforceable' anti-discrimination rule.Most Council members reacted to news of the forced presidential contest by dismissing Mr Mears as an upstart who, even if he managed to get elected, would come a cropper through naivety.

But Mr Mears will not be slapped down so easily.

As he prepared to leave for Crete for a holiday this week he confidently predicted success.He brushed aside any suggestion that he was too inexperienced for the office.

'That argument is a reason for not electing Tony Blair or his front bench and [keeping] John Major for ever and ever.

You could hardly do much worse than that.'Far from being at a disadvantage, Mr Mears feels one of his biggest selling points is the fact that he is not a Chancery Lane native.

By the same token, he points out, John Young, the Council's choice for President, is tarnished by long association with a discredited regime.Mr Mears is equally dismissive of Eileen Pembridge, the other challenger for the presidency.

With heavy sarcasm he expressed 'delight at her late conversion to democracy' and said the fact that she donned 'left wing clothes' could not disguise her close ties to 'the failed establishment'.Mr Mears is standing for election, not, he insists, to take advantage of discontent, but to establish the principle of democracy at Chancery Lane.

He was appalled to hear the current President, Charles Elly, describe the forced election as a 'distraction' from important work.

'The idea of a democratic election being a distraction is one which you would not expect to find favour outside the old Politburo.'The Society, Mr Mears says, has 'undoubtedly lost the confidence of its members'.

And, he points out, in every other sphere of life where there is such a loss of confidence either the body calls an election or it is challenged.Mr Mears draws frequent analogies between the performance of Chancery Lane and Mr Major's government.

'There is deep discontent and the government does not connect this with its own performance.

But after 16 years in power you cannot look at the electorate and say, "this is nothing to do with us".'Equally, he points out, Chancery Lane cannot plausibly turn around and say that 'the terrible economic plight of the profession' is nothing to do with them.He says that the least that the high street practitioner was entitled to expect from an 'obese' bureaucracy of more than 600 people was that it would have 'foreseen the earthquakes before they occurred'.

But, according to him, Chancery Lane failed to come up with any credible strategy to avert, or cushion the impact of, the major shifts in the legal world.

These include the enormous growth in the profession's size, the explosion in leg al aid spending, the erosion of traditional areas of work and the greatly enhanced influence of the consumer lobby.Mr Mears' critics have remarkably similar things to say about him.

Apart from commenting on his inexperience, they point out that he has failed to come up with anything remotely resembling a constructive way forward.

'He is the "anti" candidate and hopes to milk the profession's disaffection,' said a close observer.But Mr Mears' response to this criticism is to say all in good time.

'I will be producing a detailed manifesto and programme in May.

Meanwhile, I am not having my clothes stolen.' He will also be circulating 'a message' to his fellow Council members shortly.Mr Mears is a lot more sensitive to criticism about his reactionary image.

In an interview with the Gazette on joining the Council he cheerfully described himself as 'deeply reactionary'.

Last week, as he launched his election campaign, he confided to the Gazette that he was unhappy with the description.It is an image that may be difficult to displace however, given that he has devoted much of his time on the Council to ridiculing the Society's anti-discrimination rule.

Last month he tabled a motion seeking removal of the rule's sexual orientation clause, a move which caused many to doubt his motives.Mr Mears insists that he is 'not anti-homosexual, I am anti-posturing', and it must be said that in all his contributions to the Council and his writings in the legal press, he has been careful never to condone discrimination.But judging by the reactions of many solicitors, and in particular representatives of the Young Solicitors Group, his record of blistering attacks on the anti-discrimination rule and his antipathy to gay pressure groups could count against him when the profession votes in June.Mr Mears, who prides himself on being open to being persuaded on any issue, has moved from a position where he claimed no discrimination existed at all within the profession to being 'impressed' by letters he received from members of ethnic minorities claiming they had been the subject of bias.

However, he is still reluctant to acknowledge the existence of discrimination, preferring to talk of 'perceived grievances'.Perhaps surprisingly given the few short weeks remaining to campaign, Mr Mears was heading off to the Greek island of Crete for a week.

'It shows how confident I am,' he said roguishly, adding: 'I am going to win, you know.'