Legal reform
Sir: I am a barrister and I am sick to death of reading slanted rubbish about my pro- fession of the kind produced by Marcel Berlins (`Counsels of despair', 25 Novem- ber).
Solicitors have a free choice of barrister. It is part of the solicitors' job to hire competent counsel. If a small number of solicitors choose counsel who are not up to the particular task or brief them too late to permit adequate preparation, the clients' best interests will not — and on Mr Berlins's evidence are not — best served. This proves nothing, except that a few solicitors should act more responsibly and that the training of young criminal barfis- ters could be improved. It is completely irrelevant to the Lord Chancellor's 're- form' of the legal profession.
The question raised by Lord Mackay is whether or not it is in the public interest (not the commercial interest of solicitors, accountants or barristers) that rights of audience, in cases where the rights of individuals and companies are most seriously challenged, should be exercised on a referral basis by sole traders (which all barristers are and most solicitors are not) in order to reduce the opportunities for corruption and to allow the maximisation of informed choice for the client and competition between those who provide the service. This question is not answered or even addressed by the dispraise of Mr Berlins.
Victor Lyon
4 Essex Court, Temple, London EC4
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