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Law Societies in other jurisdictions allow membership and annual subscriptions / fees for practising certificates to be voluntary even while continuing as regulators. At the moment, there are so many regulators that they all need to go, TLS included, in favour of one regulator only. As for membership, that should become voluntary and annual fees should go. Even with voluntary fees, there would be sufficient income to pursue various causes. The bureaucracy and political infrastructure all need to go. Without trivialising matters, dare I say it - should there be a referendum on the question ? "Do you want to leave the TLS or stay as a voluntary member ?" If the vote is Yes, the next question is "Would you join a radical, new, vocal, dynamic group, actively pushing for the interests of solicitors ?" I personally can think of one or two ways of re-claiming lost er...'sovereignty' from the SRA / Laspo / CMCs / Public Access bar / decimated Legal Aid etc etc. What do you think?