That well-known source of reliable information, Wikipedia, helpfully says that there is no generally accepted definition of the word ‘recession’. However, I think it reasonable to accept that it is a sustained period of economic downturn. I understand that partners in some City firms have suffered diminution in their profit shares from seven figures down to six figures. Poor things. Those of us elsewhere in the country have experienced reductions in profit shares from something to nothing or worse. Indeed, there are solicitors who have found that their firms can no longer afford to keep them, or which have ceased to exist. Long-standing and good names have gone.

A lot has been learnt this year, but a lot more could be learned. Christmas comes but once a year. A time at least this year for reflection. For consideration of both what has passed and what is to come in terms of professional practice.

As ever, there have been changes, but relatively few that have any substantial effect on the profession. While legal publications will proclaim, or more frequently whinge, about changes to the way we practise, remarkably little of substance seems to change. Things go on as they always have, for better or worse. However, the firms who are proactive and take matters into their own hands will survive and thrive in the present and near future.

My firm has sent one partner on the business growth and development programme at Cranfield University and it is about to send a second. This is to bridge the gap between what trainees learn and what is actually needed to run a modern business. Even our most recently qualified solicitors have little idea how to run a business. And what we are doing in general practice is running a business.

It would be very helpful if all solicitors had to do the equivalent of the business growth and development programme somewhere in the UK before being admitted to partnership anywhere. Frankly, the level of ignorance among solicitors about how to run a business is frightening. How can it be sensible for a solicitor to advise a client concerning a business matter when the lawyer has no idea about how to run their own business?

On a happier note, this is a wonderful time for recruitment. Unless you are interested in recruiting lawyers specialising in insolvency, it is relatively comfortable to find a good candidate in the area you need. There is, however, an odd phenomenon in the area of residential conveyancing. Although it is decried and abused, conveyancing is still the mainstay of most firms. The remarkable and unsurprising thing is that there are relatively few conveyancing solicitors under 50. As each year goes by, there seems to be a smaller and smaller pool of young solicitors able and willing to deal with residential property.

Solicitors with say five to 10 years of post-qualification experience appear to have all been put off by reading in publications such as the Gazette and about the death of conveyancing.

Tesco usually does everything very well and manages to make it profitable. The work of conveyancers is, I am told, just as simple as shelling peas. Well, if you have ever done any conveyancing you will know that is so far from the truth as to be laughable.

There does appear to be, however, a problem substantially created by the legal media. Conveyancing is not dead. Far from it. People will always need to buy and sell property in greater or lesser numbers. Legal education could sensibly therefore suggest that conveyancing is an area where it is appropriate to specialise and look for a reasonably good future. However well the Co-op and AA think they can do conveyancing, I have firm faith in the client. Ultimately the client wants to be treated as a person, with individual needs, rather than a number to be processed through a checkout. This will be so even if the cost is rather greater than the ‘value-range’ supermarket will charge. Even the finest will not be that good.

It has been a horrible year. Money has been short and jobs have been shed. There is, however, a future. Do not despair. And maybe think the unthinkable – conveyancing has a future.

Julian Landy, partner, Miller Sands, Cambridge