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Peter (02:40 pm)- I am afraid that you are probably right about "some" firms, but by and large lawyers like me (who has been in private practice for many years and has now opted for in-house to regain some kind of integrity (at some considerable reduction in what was not a large salary anyway)) are not the much complained of "fat cats". I (and, I hope, most solicitors) do have some principles and integrity and believe in the importance of true professionalism and "real" client care (not the modern variety which is all but a form of marketing con trick). Greed has undoubtedly affected some lawyers who then just want to get someone (much) further down the firm's "food chain" to do the work while they reap the profits. So perhaps it ought to be a call for more traditional practice where the people who are being paid the services also do the work and some professional ethics are regained so that its not all about getting maximum profits just a reasonable reward for the work being done. We also need to be better at trying to get across to consumers of legal services/clients the huge overheads involved in running a legal practice (PI, IT systems and CPD and access to know how as examples) and the fact that qualification and experience is something that does have a value. (I would comment however that at the moment I am not sure that qualification counts for very much having been a training supervisor for many years and instead of lowering the bar we should perhaps start raising it again). Something needs to be done and although I take the point which Peter is making, that seems just to be throwing up our hands in despair and saying that there is absolutely nothing we can do. For all our sakes (as members of the public) I really hope that this is not what we are not saying.