Solicitors deserve to be congratulated for their role in the success of an initiative to boost the number of law schools offering free advice.

It is testament to their commitment to access to justice for the poor.

So why does one feel slightly discomfited by the news? Perhaps we can answer that question by asking another.

Pro bono, we are told in the official protocol on the subject, is an ‘adjunct to, not a substitute for, legal aid’.

But with the government planning savage cuts to public funding, is the profession being unwittingly manoeuvred into establishing a de facto safety net that will catch at least some (if not all) of the hundreds of thousands of people soon to be disqualified from taxpayer-funded access to justice?

We hear that question being asked with increasing frequency.

Indeed, one speaker at last week’s Minority Lawyers Conference went so far as to envisage an environment in which legal aid practitioners have quit this area of paid work altogether – leaving it to be done pro bono by default.

At the local level, persuading lawyers (and students) to fill the vacuum gratis would mean ‘devolving power... so that neighbourhoods take control of their destiny... putting trust in professionals... and encouraging volunteering and social action so people contribute to their community’.

Noble goals in the abstract, of course – and the precise terms in which David Cameron recently relaunched his ‘Big Society’ initiative.