This is my final President’s Podium, and while I write it with no little sense of sadness, I do so in the certainty that many in the profession are well placed not only to survive the current downturn, but to flourish in its aftermath.

Twelve months ago, I embarked upon my presidential year with a powerful determination to focus the attention of the profession on the business of delivering legal services – by the whole profession rather than simply private practice. The need to provide value for money is as important for in-house legal departments – which increasingly have to be run as businesses within their organisations – as it is in private practice.

Clients of all types expect to deal with well run and efficient businesses in buying any service, even one as personal as legal services. No legal profession can be truly independent and protect the rule of law if it is not working on a sound financial footing. The risks to the rule of law posed by a financially threatened legal profession can be seen in many countries around the world.

I have travelled widely around the country as president and have met a great many solicitors of all ages, backgrounds and disciplines. From the conversations that I have shared and the businesses and offices that I have visited, I have a keen sense that the profession is better prepared for the future as a consequence of the Law Society’s work in this regard, and I hope that I was able to play a part.

This last year has been a period of immense change, as were the two years before it. Looking forward, the pace of change will quicken rather than slow.

Despite the strongly held views of many politicians and commentators, we are a profession which has shown itself willing to embrace and adapt to change. Indeed, a great deal of that change has been a consequence of the considerable work that the profession has itself undertaken to reform legal services. From human rights to conveyancing, to competition law, company law and tax law, the profession can rightly take credit for many of the improvements to legal processes, a fact often overlooked by those critics who suggest that the profession is dragging its feet in preparing for further change.

Regulation will be a major issue in the coming years as the profession faces unprecedented competition from other suppliers of legal services. The Society has rightly taken the lead by commissioning the independent Hunt Review of how the profession is regulated and by taking a robust stance in defending the principle of profession-led regulation. There is a lot more work to do however, not least with regard to the regulation of alternative business structures (ABSs).

At the same time, the Legal Services Board must recognise that the need to create a practical, workable and cost-effective system of regulation is more important than the sudden, unexplained urgency to begin issuing licences for ABSs come what may. Caution in this regard has in some quarters been misrepresented as prevarication, but this is an unfounded charge aimed at a profession that has exhibited a willingness to accept both the need to change and the environment in which it operates.

All legal services regulation has to be a competitive strength rather than a commercial weakness. The high integrity of the brand of solicitor (which is the profession’s main strength) must be maintained while those who wish to embrace the opportunities presented by the Legal Services Act must be free to compete with new providers without suffering any disadvantage. I am confident that the newly appointed chairman of the SRA, Charles Plant, with his long-term commitment to education and promotion of the highest professional standards, will ensure that profession-led regulation becomes a reality.

I believe that the biggest change facing the profession is one that may not be immediately obvious. Current economic anxiety within the profession and concerns over regulation conceal an even greater challenge for the majority of the legal profession of England and Wales, both solicitors and barristers.

Both branches of the profession have enjoyed unprecedented growth over the last 20 years. The constant increase in demand for legal services before the downturn meant that the market was able not only to incorporate a large number of new entrants to the profession, but also to benefit from an expansion in technology which allowed individual solicitors to undertake more work, faster.

There is no doubt in my mind that this bull market has ended. We are moving into a very uncomfortable part of the cycle of supply and demand, where the market will no longer sustain the volume of highly qualified solicitors available.

With this in mind, I believe it would be wrong for anybody to assume that it will be back to business as usual when this painful recession finally subsides. Instead, I think that there will be significant reorganisation driven by consumer demand, new competition, and the unstoppable evolution and development of increasingly sophisticated IT systems.

I have always believed that the profession will survive so long as it provides legal services to the public in the form that the public wants those services supplied. Intoxicated by the liberation of the internet, it is clear that the current consumer is both increasingly knowledgeable and service-orientated.

The use of internet-based technology, and different working practices and competition will completely revolutionise the economics of legal work in England and Wales. That is the challenge of change and I am confident that the profession will rise to it.

As for the Law Society, I leave it in excellent hands. Robert Heslett, the incoming president, is a man of experience, knowledge and character, and he will be ably supported by his team of Linda Lee, John Wotton and the Law Society’s hard-working treasurer, Philip Hamer. Des Hudson as chief executive, and his splendid staff, will continue to support and, where necessary, lead the profession.

I wish all of them and you the very best, both now and in future. If all areas of the profession work together then I am certain that it can be a very bright future indeed. I thank you for the support you have given me personally during my term of office and for allowing me to be your president.

Paul Marsh is president of the Law Society