I understand that, notwith-standing widespread opposition from members of the property section of the Law Society, the Law Society Council has decided to relax the solicitors' practice rules regarding fee sharing.

This decision is not entirely surprising, having regard to the posture of the Society over the past few years in its dealings with the government.

Still, this decision will reinforce the views of many practitioners that the Society is becoming out of touch with the concerns of those solicitors at the coal-face.

The Law Society's response to the Housing Bill made great play of the fact that solicitors were at the centre of the conveyancing process for 150 years.

A conveyancing system has evolved during this period, which provides at low cost some of the best safeguards for consumers in western Europe.

Unfortunately, the Society nevertheless appears to be facilitating a drip-feed corrosion of high street practice, by saying in effect that conveyancing is just a commodity legal service, which can be undertaken by anybody freed from the burden of adherence to high professional standards.

This at a time when legislation continues to be enacted dealing with money laundering, protection of the environment and taxation, which contradict the government's stated aim of 'cheaper, quicker and faster conveyancing'.

In the post-Enron era, any weakening of the professional glue that has held the whole conveyancing process together for such a long period will suit nobody, except those estate agents who wish to control the whole conveyancing process, and a government that has been one of the most anti-professional in modern times.

SJ Larcombe, Limbach Banham, Royston, Hertfordshire