Traditions die hard

In common with Dr Pippa Rogerson, I welcome the addition of an IT Centre for students at Cambridge University's Law Faculty (see [2000] Gazette, 18 May, 20).

However, I wonder whether she is correct in saying that our clients' needs and our responsibilities have changed.For a period of more than 25 years now people have been coming to see me to solve their problems which have had legal dimensions.

To do this I have neither developed a gaoler's gait nor had to retain, in my mind, the combination of keys which would give access to source material; often enough I have had to supplement my own lack of knowledge of the law from some of the fine volumes which furnish my rooms.If such information can be retrieved more thoroughly, completely and quickly, so much the better, but I do not think anyone should deceive themselves into thinking that the nature of a solicitor's job has changed as a result of this 'dramatic evolution'.

As Dr Rogerson says, our role in the future will be to interpret and guide our clients to relevant information.

Those activities, coupled with those of establishing our clients' problems, suggesting and advising how they deal with their difficulties in the light of the law have always been, and I hope will remain, some of our primary activities.Nigel R Seed, Wintle & Co, Middleton-on-Sea