Michael Cassidy, the City lawyer and political force behind the Corporation of London, has harsh words for the Law Society.

'I've always been an observer of Law Society affairs and I'm not frightfully impressed with what I've seen,' he says.

'I think it's an overblown organisation with poor public relations, over concerned with its internal politics and is missing the bigger picture.' This, he says, is not just his own personal view but one he believes is also shared by the public.

And nothing that has happened recently has changed his mind.Mr Cassidy is clearly not a man in the habit of mincing his words.

And over the years the City has also found he matches his words with actions.

In 1993 he led the City's response to the Bishopsgate bomb.

Together with the City of London police commissioner he helped institute the 'ring of steel' with an armed and uniformed anti-terrorist police presence in the City.

Backed with powers to stop and search vehicles, it not only protected the City from bombings but led to a dramatic decrease in ordinary crime in the Square Mile.

It may also have been one of the reasons why the IRA chose Docklands as a target to resume its bombing campaign in England.Last year it was Chancellor Kenneth Clarke's turn to come in for some candid opinion.

Mr Cassidy, in interviews with a Sunday newspaper and the Gazette, made it known he was not happy with the unrepresentative composition of the City Promotion Panel, the chancellor's own brainchild for a organisation to represent City interests.'I was speaking for others who shared my view but it looked as if it were declaring World War Three on the chancellor.

Nevertheless, what I said, I meant.

But I have now moved my approach to a more constructive one.'This week Mr Cassidy and another 100 key City figures met Treasury minister Angela Knight at the Mansion House where the same subject was on the agenda.

He describes the meeting as 'a communication process which I think the Treasury had not previously considered'.Perhaps people would not take so much notice of Mr Cassidy if it were not for the fact that he can lay claim to being one of the most powerful men in the City.

As chairman of the Corporation of London's policy and resources committee he controls an annual budget of £150 million, greater than most borough councils.Half of this wealth derives from private charitable funds accumulated over the centuries.

The other half comes from the rates.

Out of the private funds, at no cost to the tax payer, the corporation runs the four City bridges, Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest.

The corporation has also just announced a £10 million grant to other London charities, resulting in 1000 applications.When London's bid for the millennium exhibition looked to be floundering earlier this month, Mr Cassidy stepped in and organised a corporation initiative to bring in £75 million from priva te donations and pledges.

It is arguable whether the corporation could have mustered such a dynamic response a decade ago.

'The policy committee chairman of the day has an enormous scope to decide which direction the corporation is going to go.

And I have used it,' he points out.But the corporation could be about to face the most severe test of its long and illustrious history.

The last Labour manifesto committed the party to its abolition.

Mr Cassidy has been busy convincing Labour of the folly of such a policy.

'We have to be alert to the possibility of a Labour government coming in.

If we can create an atmosphere where the City is seen as constructive in dealing with London-wide problems then I think they are less likely to abolish us.' In his meetings with Labour front benchers like Frank Dobson he has put forward a persuasive case.

The corporation, he says, is now using its huge wealth to 'reach out to help surrounding boroughs'.

The corporation has initiated 40 projects which mainly benefit more deprived areas of London.He says this is not just part of a PR campaign to make the corporation politically indispensable but driven by a 'genuine feeling of concern about being surrounded by a doughnut of deprivation'.

He says such an neglected state of affairs will lead to 'social unrest' because of what he describes as the 'envy factor' of people living in areas of highest unemployment in the country so close to the 'rich square mile'.His skill as a lawyer, well versed in using strong arguments, has to some extent paid off.

Mr Dobson, Labour's environment spokesman, says Mr Cassidy, started as an abolitionist but is now 'looking at other options'.

These options will be reflected in a soon-to-be published Labour consultation document on the future of the City.Mr Cassidy has been returned as a member of the corporation's common council since 1980, democratically elected every year.

In the late 1980s he was the planning committee chairman, during which time the committee authorised a third of buildings in the City to be replaced.

Since 1991 he has been chairman of the policy and resources committee.Mr Cassidy juggles his time at the corporation with his work as senior partner at commercial property specialists Maxwell Batley.

Considering his other outside interests, including a recent appointment as non-executive director to British Land, it is even more amazing that he has also overseen a doubling in size of the firm in the last two years.Mr Cassidy acknowledges that his time with the corporation is coming to an end.

But he resists the natural progression to the office of lord mayor of London.

'My interest on the council is to make things happen and fulfil my particular vision as to what the corporation should be doing.'