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Not that I have studied the reforms, because I haven't, but the little general knowledge that I have gleaned from, principally, the Law Society Gazette, gives me little reassurance that our trade union is on track to do anything that might genuinely turn things around on the High Street.

I was on the Law Society Council for only two years from 2003 until 2005, and whilst I had then, and still have today, grave concerns about the Law Society, I did not think then that it needed a restructuring of the kind being undertaken now, nor do I think that it needs one today.

The problem then was one of attitude. There were too many people in positions of authority at Chancery Lane and at the Regional Offices who were, in their hearts, anti-solicitor. A non-solicitor regional manager told me flat out that she wanted solicitors to work for nothing. True story. I am not making it up.

There were also a phenomenal number of people who were solicitors and pro-solicitor, but who had absolutely no idea what life was like at the coal face. Not a clue. They had never had to face a client complaint that could escalate to the parallel court that was the Consumer Complaints Service, now the Legal Services Ombudsman, and, because of their background, would never, ever, face such a complaint. Neither would these solicitors ever have clients who simply can't or won't pay.

Between clients who can pay, but don't want to, and clients who can't pay, many a firm on the High Street is in serious financial trouble, and I found that many a solicitor at Chancery Lane simply could not understand that clients who can pay and don't want to pay have to be trodden on hard, whilst those who genuinely can't pay have to be given assistance by cross-subsidy and / or legal aid.

The issue of cross-subsidy is complex, but it infuriated me that so many solicitors at the Law Society simply refused to engage with it because it did not suit them personally. It was a case of I'm all right Jack, but if that is your attitude, I thought, why are you here?

Will the management restructuring deal with the above attitude problem? I hope so, but if it is intended to turn things around on the High Street I don't see how it can. How does turning a (failed) trade union into something more resembling a large company help?

It is my long-held view that what is really needed is a removal of all non-solicitors from positions of authority within the Law Society. No exceptions. There can't be a single non-solicitor on the Law Society Council or on the senior management team or running a regional office. Not one, anywhere.

It also needs to cut down dramatically on the number of solicitors who, because of the organisations they come from, eg working for in house legal departments of charities, local government employed solicitors, firms that only have businesses as clients, haven't ever, and won't ever have the kind of can't pay / won't pay clients that High Street firms face day in, day out.

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