Kerry Underwood

Shakespeare wrote:

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” (Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4).

As this play is as readable as a commercial lease or European Court of Justice judgment I am surprised anyone ever made it to Part 2.

Soon you may all find out if the Bored of Stratford was right as from 6 October the Government aims to kill the legal profession by allowing non-lawyers to practise law.

This has all-party support – it was the Labour Government that introduced the Legal Services Act 2007 and it is being implemented by a Conservative-Liberal coalition.

I suppose this will ease unemployment among the jobless phone-hackers and police bunga bungas but hey, maybe it is time for a bit MORE regulation of lawyers, police, politicians and the press, not less.

So, and you heard it here first, Law Abroad plc and Underwoods Solicitors are remaining just that – solicitors.  No Alternative Business Structure for us.  After all the legal profession, and its offspring the judiciary, are about the only parts of the British Constitution not subsumed in scandal.

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper

(T S Eliot: The Hollow Men)

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