This is a blog I didn’t expect to write. We all know the independence of the legal profession from government is robust, right? In the summer I was speaking to Carolyn Lamm, the then president of the American Bar Association, about alternative business structures. When I asked if we had covered all of her concerns, she surprised me by raising the independence issue.

A Gazette article caught my eye today, entitled “Solicitors believe ABSs will create ‘more opportunity’”, writes Duncan Finlyson. It is the latest bizarre and illogical instalment in the plan to delude everyone into believing that alternative business structures are not a threat but an opportunity.

In the short time I’ve known her, the chairwoman of the Legal Services Consumer Panel, Baroness/Dr Dianne Hayter (she seems to operate under her non-enobled title), has not minced her words. However, she is perhaps being restrained when she tells Legal Futures that the panel is “disappointed” with the agreement that has been struck over the introduction of lay majorities on the boards of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board.

Following on from my previous post about Foursquare, now I am concentrating on Squidoo and HubPages. Squidoo is an online publishing platform and community that lets you create “lenses” (pages) about a particular topic. It is free to join and you can even earn 50% of the company’s advertising revenue for charity or yourself.

During my 12 years working on the Law Society Gazette, one got used to certain clichés. The plastic wrapper would come up a lot, but more than anything people would say how their favourite section was the one detailing solicitors being struck off – it was the same for me as a reader while a trainee solicitor. I felt strangely proud a few months back after recognising three people in one edition of the Gazette’s Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal reports.