I read with incredulity your recent conduct and service column (see [2004] Gazette, 8 April, 30).

It seems that some firms are still acting as if we were back in the 1980s, if not before.

Will disciplinary proceedings be brought against a partner in this 'large London law firm'? I doubt it.

And am I being cynical in thinking that if a sole practitioner had behaved in this way, the Law Society would have intervened in his practice? This profession still has an enormous uphill task ahead of it should it wish to recover the public respect and confidence that existed when I qualified in 1976.

It is time that those solicitors who bring this profession into disrepute were brought before the disciplinary tribunal, punished and given the maximum publicity.

If not, we have little future.

Christopher Cope, Cope's Solicitors, Kings Nympton