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Way back before the 1870 reforms attorneys conducted litigation before the Queen's Bench and solicitors conducted litigation in Chancery. Attorneys were notoriously ill-educated and sloppy and earned relatively low fees. When the systems of law and equity were fused the profession preferred to use the term 'solicitor' because 'attorney' had such a poor reputation. Indeed there is a story that Dr Johnson was at dinner where a participant was not known to the assembled company and when he was asked who the person was he replied "I do not wish to speak ill of any man but I believe the gentleman is an attorney". If one de-professionalises the law in favour of unrestricted competition, how long before the term solicitor also attracts such contempt? Or more probably, why will anyone bother to become one if there is no longer any benefit in doing so?