Why be a solicitor? That is a question that will be asked ever more frequently in the coming years when you could become a legal executive or a licensed conveyancer and, in all likelihood, enjoy most if not all of the same rights and privileges as solicitors.

The idea that the government might tell all solicitors that they must put client account money in one, specified bank is unlikely to go down well with the profession. Though the Conservatives’ plan to harvest the interest from bringing it all together to boost the legal aid fund includes a guarantee that clients and solicitors will not lose out on the interest they currently earn, it is bound to make people nervous.

Tuesday’s announcement that professional indemnity insurer Quinn Insurance Limited – and its UK branch, Quinn Insurance Limited (UK) – has been placed into provisional administration has raised many concerns in the legal sector. Quinn covers some 2,911 solicitors firms, and last year wrote £23.7m worth of business – roughly 10% of the market, making it the fifth-largest provider of indemnity insurance to solicitors

Competence testing is a delicate subject which legal regulators approach with considerable caution. It has been talked about – indeed, SRA chief executive Antony Townsend expressed his desire to move towards it when appointed in 2006 – but the fear with such schemes is that practitioners view them as a form of punishment, rather than being about professional development, maintaining high standards and reassuring the public.

‘Freedom in Practice: Better Outcomes for Consumers’ is being billed as the SRA’s biggest-ever consultation exercise, which is appropriate given that outcomes-focused regulation is such a massive change to the regulation of the profession. It comes with its own logo and website on top of the authority’s usual outreach tools of consultation papers and roadshows.