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Sorry, I wanted to bite my tongue - again. But I HAVE to say that this is just the sort of leftie, trade unionised drivel that led barristers and solicitors to shame every member of the legal profession by going on strike, like money-mad, clock-watching jobsworths, rather than finding a more PROFESSIONAL way to resolve their grievances than standing round, warming their hands over braziers outside the factory gates in between waving pickets saying "honk if you love lawyers" - a move no doubt guaranteed to ensure they suffered in silence.

Solicitors' working hours are not about industrial relations. They are about serving our clients, the people for whom professionals REALLY work. Not everyone works in a 200 lawyer firm where they can be covered by "one of the team" while they are off work. The vast majority have nobody to cover for them. We're all too busy doing our own work.

And, clients are entitled to expect you to be there for them in their hour of need - on mobile and email, at home or on holiday, 24/7/365, not having conversations with your voicemail while you are huddled under an umbrella in the middle of a muddy field, cheering on little Jocelyn or Camilla in the egg and spoon race.

If lawyers cannot embrace the culture of long hours and self-sacrifice required of a true professional, the public will continue to see us as even more overpaid, greedy, selfish and arrogant than they already consider us to be. Or, I hear there are jobs at McDonalds for burger flippers - excellent pay and conditions and hours to suit.

Only when the cossetted employees of our professional body understand that their privileged existence as home-centred nine-to-fivers bears no resemblance to the working lives of 99.9% of those who pay their wages, they might start to understand the requirements of a profession, as opposed to a job.