Dear Angela,

I am a freelance solicitor advocate, currently supporting the strike action and have noticed a significant potential problem in the approach being taken.

This week's Monday Message made no mention of solicitor advocates (or solicitors) and from the comments I have seen and heard from the profession there is a real risk that the unity of purpose that has been in place since this action commenced is in danger of fracturing.

I appreciate that in an ideal world the Law Society would be providing leadership and assistance to it's members but I, and most of my colleagues, have come to expect little by way of such help and it appears that there is currently a worrying lack of consultation between the CBA and solicitor advocates. Comments like "Soon there will be pilots to enable barristers to gain easier access to some court buildings by the use of agreed forms of identification."in your message must either be unfortunately worded (if you meant to include all advocates) or point to an attempt to divide the advocate body of professionals. It may be a small issue, in fact it is a small issue, but it highlights a much more significant problem with the ongoing attitude to the Bar's approach to solicitor advocates.

The ongoing assault on legal aid is far too important to allow such divisions to continue.

There has also been an absence of any acknowledgement that firms who hold legal aid contracts have been placed in difficult positions. Most firms have faced these difficulties (pressure from the judiciary, even more pressure from their contract managers) but if the end result of this action is, or is perceived to be, a "win" for the Bar as opposed to for the profession of advocates as a whole then such support will be very difficult to garner again - and I am sure that there will be a next time, sadly.

This message is intended to be constructive, I understand that considerable work is being done by many well-intentioned people and I am grateful for that but this work has to be for the good of us all or it will ultimately be in vain. The system seems to like it when we fight each other and we will be behaving like children if we fall into that trap.

Please seek to include all organisations that act for solicitor advocates in this ongoing action, not to do so is simply wrong.

Kind regards

Dawn Burrows

Solicitor Advocate