Gordon Ross suggests we should revert to calling ourselves attorneys instead of solicitors (see [2005] Gazette, 3 November, 14). About the time of the change to the title of solicitor, more than 150 years ago, a little verse was composed that ended: 'Such opprobrium attends the attorney's name/That unless my observation errs/They have all become solicitors.'

I doubt a name change will stop the opprobrium for another 150 years.


Simon Cockshutt, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, London