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I have retired and I refused to pay the £20 (just before the fee was abolished) so my name is no longer on the Roll but I am still a 'lawyer'. Anyone with a law degree is technically a lawyer so giving the word a legally enforceable definition would be problematic.

On the other hand a single regulator does make sense. Why should solicitors have to jump through more hoops than other 'lawyers'? The Law Society is not popular with solicitors if posts here are anything to go by (but we must recognise that people who take the time to post here are not necessarily representative of the profession as a whole) but it is our professional body and it is the only body capable of defending our independence. I know it has a bad track record - throughout my career which stretches back to 1967 the Council has always run away from a fight, whether it was with the banks over their incursions into probate work the governments of every colour which did as they liked with us - but, unless someone is able to resurrect the British Legal Association TLS is what we have.

It is unlikely that a single regulator would be able to control entry to the profession because if it did it would have to control entry to all eight of the legal professions, from solicitors through patent attorneys to notaries. Entry to each profession would likely return to the individual professional bodies with the regulator merely overseeing the quality of training.

A single regulator would be recognised as a tool of government but then that is what the SRA is now, but obscured by being part of the Law Society. Perhaps a change to a single regulator could include it being answerable to the master of the Rolls and thus free of government interference?

However one looks at it, we need separation. TLS is like an NCO, still the same as the squaddies but constantly mindful of what the officers will think. We need TLS to be more like the shop steward who didn't give a monkey’s what the bosses thought. We need TLS to be free to represent, to fight our corner, but, perhaps most importantly, we need TLS to become defiant!