Prime Minister Tony Blair last week exhorted the party faithful at New Labour's Bournemouth conference to sweep away the 'old elites'.

At the same time the Law Society was calling on the government to abolish the system of Queen's Counsel and overhaul the judicial appointments regime.

In a submission to Sir Leonard Peach's inquiry into judicial appointments, the Society described the office of QC as having 'no place in a modern competitive legal market'.

The inquiry reports back to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, at the end of the year.In 1995 solicitors advocates were for the first time invited by the Lord Chancellor to apply for the rank of QC; and couple of years ago, the first two solicitors took silk joining the 10% of barrister QCs.

The then-President Tony Girling qualified his 'delight' by expressing 'serious doubts' about the 'continuing relevance' of QCs in a modern justice system.

Two years on, President Robert Sayer has no such doubts.

He says: 'The consequence of the silk system - if not the intention - is to create an artificial market for experienced advocacy that causes scarcity and raises fees.' According to the Society's submission, this is a fact of which solicitors are all too aware.

It says: 'Solicitors are too often involved in advising clients involved in litigation where the other side has a QC.

In practice, this puts pressure on their opponents to be represented, simply to show an equal degree of seriousness'.The process of secret soundings, the informal 'behind-closed-doors' consultations through which both QCs and judges are appointed, was singled out for criticism.

The Society has called for the creation of an independent commission for judicial appointments replacing the Lord Chancellor's role, and it has announced that it will not take part in any more secret soundings.There has been a growing chorus of disapproval with the system of silks, and earlier in the year solicitor Labour MP Andrew Dismore led a campaign backed by 100 MPs who signed a Commons motion to scrap the office.

A coalition of solicitors' groups this week - comprising the Law Society Commerce & Industry Group (C&I), the Trainees Solicitors Group, the Young Solicitors Group, the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS), the Local Government Group and the African and Asian Lawyers Group - called for an end to 'discriminatory' judicial and QC appointments.

In a joint statement, the groups called for 'a new system based upon equality, openess, and transparency with QCs and judges appointed on the basis of talent merit and capability'.

Edward Smethurst, chairman of the C& I Group said it was 'unbelievable' that employed solicitors were excluded from judicial and QC appointments.Opposition to QCs has united such disparate groups as the Legal Action Group (LAG) and right-wing think-tank the Adam Smith Institute (ASI).

In last year's ASI report, Silk Cut: are Queen's Counsel necessary?, solicitor Peter Reeve concluded that without silks a free market in advocacy in general would prevail.

Vicki Chapman, head of policy at the LAG, says the silk system creates an artificial 'market within a market' driving up legal fees, particularly in criminal work.

She also reckons it fails as as a badge of legal quality, arguing that there is no on-going process of assessment once a silk has been appointed.Perhaps unsurprisingly the Bar is standing behind the system.

According to a Bar Council spokesman the term QC is 'synonymous with independence and investigative skill'.

The spokesman adds: 'When public institutions run into difficulties it is usually a QC [who is] appointed to see what has gone wrong.'Only solicitor-advocates are currently eligible to apply for silk.

To date there are only four solicitor QCs.

They all come from commercial law backgrounds - Mark Clough of Ashurst Morris Crisp, David Mackie of Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith's Lawrence Collins, and Arthur Marriott of US firm Debevoise & Plimpton.In July, the Lord Chancellor wrote to Sir Leonard saying that it was 'crucial...

that barristers achieve Queen's Counsel status through an absolutely fair assessment of their skills and qualities'.

The failure to acknowledge that solicitors can take silk was a telling omission according to the Law Society.According to Mark Humphries, vice chairman of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates, it is too early to say whether the system of QCs should be returned, abolished or reformed from the point of view of solicitor advocates.

But he adds that there is a case for investigating what the benefits are for the public.

Criticisms of secrecy over the appointment of new silks, he adds, appear to be partly justified.Solicitor-QC Mark Clough argues silks are not an anachronism especially with an increasing number of solicitors qualifying for rights of audience in the higher courts.

If there is to be a thriving advocacy practice among solicitors, he contends, then there should be a way of distinguishing between all practitioners according to experience.

As to the suggestion that silks are artificially inflating legal fees, he reckons that - outside of the legal aid arena - senior solicitors and barristers are charging as much as barrister QCs.

He adds that he has been impressed by Lord Irvine's approach to choosing silks.

Nor should solicitors feel shunned, Mr Clough says, adding that only seven solicitors applied when he was appointed.Arthur Marriott, one of the first two solicitor-QCs, fiercely denies allegations that there is a lack of transparency in the appointment of either QCs or judges.

There is a clear transparency, he argues, in the sense that lawyers from both sides of the profession and the judiciary can all identify the likely candidates.

The consultation exercise is wide-ranging and is not an old boys' network selecting its own cronies, he argues.1997(first year solicitors appointed QC)Number of barrister applicants 494Number of solicitor applicants 6Number of barrister-QCs appointed 66Number of solicitor-QCs appointed 21998Number of barrister applicants 504Number of solicitor applicants 7Number of barrister-QCs appointed 59Number of solicitor-QCs appointed 11999Number of barrister applicants 545Number of solicitor applicants 8Number of barrister-QCs appointed 67Number of solicitor-QCs appointed 1