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What I want to see for the sake of our profession is the Law Society manned by members of the profession who are hungry to see the profession restored to some kind of respectability and to ensure that the members of the profession are ones to whom that respect is properly owed.

I have been horrified by the lack of integrity and absence of any professional or even basic ethics on the part of solicitors shown in many reports of fraud perpetrated by their practices. It may only be that a small percentage of firms are involved but frankly it would seem that these instances are becoming disturbingly frequent nonetheless.

Allowing solicitors to continue in practice when they have been found to be involved in fraudulent activity is only going to exacerbate the already execrable view of solicitors in the eyes of the public, which is grossly unfair on those members of the profession who practice honourably and in accordance with the long held ethics of the profession and in most cases for very modest financial reward.

The SRA have not tackled these matters well and seem to go after the wrong people for the wrong things (i.e. the soft or easy targets - those who have made genuine mistakes rather than those involved in deliberate and systematic wrong-doing - doubtless to meet "targets" and to be able to tick boxes). The Law Society ought to push hard to take back responsibility for the membership. The LS ought to be the best qualified to do this and ought to give serious consideration to re-introducing interviewing prospective members of the profession and tightening up the qualification route generally. Standards need to be kept high by people who understand what high standards actually means in the context of the legal profession and this is not something which the SRA do seem to understand.

Until we regain respect, we shall continue to be at the mercy of the "hostile external environment" which is adept at driving edges between the public and the legal profession to its own advantage.