Trading places

Is it possible to arrest the rush to accept that solicitors are traders? Three recent sightings of references to trading by solicitors prompt me to put this question: l The use by a solicitors' firm in the south of England, which used to practise with a firm name consisting of three individual names, of letterhead bearing the initials of those three names.

In small type it is recorded that those initials are a trading name of the firm concerned.l A news item in a recent issue of the Gazette referring to Durnford Ford as having stopped trading in 1992.l Another recent news item about Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) status, containing four references to law firms trading.I qualified as a solicitor in 1977 with a view to practising, and I am happy, and intend, to continue to do so.

I am sure that the political establishment views us as traders.

I can think of no reason why we should agree.GJ Baker Cresswell, Sanderson McCreath & Edney Solicitors, Alnwick, Northumberland