Memory Lane

Review of regulation

A separate compliance regime for big City corporate firms is to be considered as part of a profession-wide review of regulation, the Gazette can reveal. The development comes amid indications that bigger practices are considering alternatives to the existing system of regulation and representation.

7 October 1998

Shock of the new

Some solicitors have expressed fears that electronic conveyancing will diminish either the role of the solicitor, or of the responsibility and requirement for professional expertise. On the contrary, electronic registration will demand more control, not less, and so place more responsibility on the shoulders of a solicitor.

11 October 1978

Whose ‘civil rights’?

‘A gross infringement of civil rights’ has become one of the standard knee-jerk reflexes of the political left to any suggestion that involves the strict enforcement of the law or discussion of duties that are the corollary of rights. In fact, the ‘civil rights’ of Her Majesty’s subjects have never, so far as I am aware, been defined.

October 1968

Monopolies Commission

As we go to press, the [Law Society] council have completed and submitted to the Monopolies Commission their memorandum of evidence on what might loosely be called ‘restrictive practices’ prevailing in relation to the supply of our professional services. The presence of restrictions is the hallmark of a profession: no profession can be without them, but it follows that the restrictions must be imposed not for self-interest but for the benefit of the public at large.

October 1948

Identity cards

Mr Bevan stated that the identity card is an essential part of the national registration system that renders valuable services in food and clothes rationing and in connection with the National Services Acts, national health services and the system of family allowances.