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This article is timely.

The experience of many solicitors since the Legal Services Act has not been a happy one. There is a tangible correlation, between the "liberalisation" of legal services, and the loss of reputation of a whole profession.

Indications at the beginning, that regulation might be "light touch" have turned out to be wishful thinking.

In the events that have occurred, regulatory activitism has meant a collision, between the traditional elements of professionalism, and rampant consumerism, and an obsession with competition policy objectives.

Many solicitors want not only a separation from the SRA, but from an Act itself, which has done real harm to the profession and the operation of a viable Rule of Law.

So yes, the Law Society can no longer face two ways, and there must now be a very conscious regulatory uncoupling.