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@London Lawyer and others commenting on the number of Committees & Boards the Society has - do you have any idea how many areas of law there are, and within each of these areas, how much legislation is made and how many consultations are issued each year by Government & other bodies? Naturally every solicitor expects the Society to respond to all of these consultations; to issue parliamentary briefings on legislation; table amendments and to represent their specific interests to the Government - hence the number of specialist Committees (which incidentally any of you could apply to sit on if you want to influence the Society from the inside). The Society undertakes a phenomenal amount of work on behalf of it's members in pretty much every area of law.

I'd be interested to know how you would explain to your colleagues who are represented by these Committees that the Society is no longer going to be able to undertake any more work in their area of law as it needs to reduce the number of Committees. How would you choose which area of law to 'axe'? Tax law? Housing? Crime?....

I would also be interested to see how a small 'ad hoc' group of volunteers - as has been suggested - would undertake the herculean task that is currently undertaken by Law Society staff and the specialist Committees, in responding to hundreds of consultations; issuing briefings to parliament; tabling amendments to legislation etc. Oh and I almost forgot all of the judicial reviews and legal challenges that are brought on behalf of the profession and in defence of access to justice - e.g. in the area of legal aid - who will be doing this work in the brave new 'slimmed down' world?