Report comment

So, the Tribunal considers it is a privilege to be a solicitor.. Whoever uttered those words, it seems to me, might conceivably himself or herself be a solicitor of more than 30 years standing

I am such a solicitor, and I have to say that when I qualified , becoming a member of the profession was something of a privilege, and there was a certain integrity in being a member of our profession.

However, and I post this on the basis of perhaps generating a straw poll, I wonder how many of us who have been qualified for a similar number of years, if we had the benefit of foresight at the time and could see what our profession would become by today, would have quickly decided to do something else and avoid becoming a solicitor like the proverbial plague.

It is a sad reflection on our once esteemed profession, that it would appear we are regarded as beneath estate agents in terms of the contempt with which the public regard us, and that the majority of the public seem to regard solicitors as intent on making as much money out of every client as conceivably possible, in the shortest possible space of time, and for the minimum amount of work, all of which remains shrouded in secrecy. For the majority of solicitors, that of course is nonsense, but sadly that is how we are regarded, and it is not something that any of us, and particularly the Law Society and the SRA, should be proud of.