Catherine Dixon told us so many home truths in her recent article that it should keep us awake at night. I have started to talk of the ‘end of our profession’ as the death of the common attorney. It could even be the title of my autobiography.
One problem, Ms Dixon says, is that the title ‘lawyer’ is not protected and that it is confusing for the public and can be misleading. I would like to repeat a suggestion that I made in your columns a few years ago. I believe that the title ‘doctor’ somehow attracts respect.
Dentists have controversially started adopting the title ‘doctor’. In Germany, a lawyer is Herr Doktor; in France a lawyer attracts the title ‘Maître’.
I learned that in Canada, lawyers have decided to call themselves doctors. Very few of our medical colleagues are really ‘doctors’ because not many have been awarded a doctorate.
Why should we not call ourselves ‘doctor’?
I know that there would be complaints from those with university-awarded doctorates and some will argue that it would be confusing. But although the bard may have said ‘let’s kill all the lawyers’, he never said ‘let’s kill all the doctors’.
Jerry Pearlman, consultant, Zermansky and Partners, Leeds
