By the time you read this you will already, no doubt, have broken your new year’s resolutions, particularly if they involve less chocolate, less alcohol and more exercise. But nevertheless, we convinced a few brave souls to share their resolutions with our readers for 2007.

1. Campbell Deane, Partner Bannatyne Kirkwood France & Co
\"My resolution is that the next time I am involved in the media trial of the year I don’t suggest to the client that he may wish to dispose of the services of his Counsel and Solicitor.\"

2. Cameron Fyfe, Partner, Ross Harper
\"My resolution is to improve my golf swing. My current one is too erratic. I can hit a drive either 250 yards or, as happened last week, two inches (with a slight slice).\"

3. Ruthven Gemmell, President, Law Society of Scotland
“Oscar Wilde once said, ‘Good resolutions are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.’ With that in mind, I will pass on making one in order to keep my credit score intact.”

4. Innes Christie, Solicitor, AEGON UK
\"Lose weight, get fit enough to beat my son in the Edinburgh 10km run and take on board what my golf coach tells me.”

5. Linda Urquhart, Chief Executive, Morton Fraser
“The perennial one, not to make any New Year resolutions; and, if I am going to make one – download music I would like to listen to on my iPod so that I do not have to listen to the music choice of my teenage daughters.”

6. Victoria Good, Partner, Thorley Stephenson and
owner of Avant designer fashions in Edinburgh
“I am resolving to take a little more time to savour and enjoy life rather than habitually running, in a neurotic obsessive fashion, from one social or work related activity or task to another. I also plan to actually utilise my membership at One Spa at the Sheraton as my next swim will have cost me something in the region of £3,000.”

7. Richard Pugh, Solicitor, Drummond Miller WS, and President of the Scottish Young Lawyers Association
“To travel throughout the world and have adventures in all five continents, positively affecting the lives of everyone that I meet – although I am sure this will go the same way as all of my previous New Year’s resolutions! Failing this, however, I would just like to keep enjoying my work and having fun.”

8. John Carruthers, Advocate and co-founder of Oracle Chambers
“For Oracle Chambers to be a success, to innovate and to challenge the status quo. To be in Athens in May and there purge the pain of Seville.”

9. Malcolm Wood, Company Secretary and General Counsel, Standard Life
\"To practice my trumpet. I used to play in The Really Terrible Orchestra but all that had to go by the board in the run up to our IPO and at present I\'m not even up to their very low standards. Also, to get to know my way round the detailed provisions of the new Companies Act and to make them work, wherever possible, to add value for our stakeholders.\"

10. David Laing, Chairman, Ledingham Chalmers
“If only I had the discernment and self-control to offer to others only those expectations I can deliver! And then the energy and patience to deliver them!”

11. Collette Paterson, New Lawyers’ Coordinator,
The Law Society of Scotland
“It is my New Year’s resolution to learn Italian, something I’ve wanted to do for years. Felice Anno Nuovo!”

12. Samara Shah, Solicitor, Standard Life and
Past President of the Scottish Young Lawyers Association
“In 2007, either the gym membership goes, or I go to the gym. Starbucks will be a treat rather than routine. Vegetables and fruit will be enjoyed in five servings a day, and I will recycle.”

13. Emma Bell, Partner, Brodies
“For the thirteenth year running my resolution is to improve my work/life balance. I must also improve work/life balance for our team, a resolution I muct keep as they will no doubt quote me. Also, continue to enjoy work and life (outside of work!). Life outside work has improved immensely since we got rid of the TV. It is amazing how many more hours you have in the day to do things more interesting than watching “I’m a celebrity…”.

14. Matthew Auchincloss, Director, PDSO
“To be a good father to the baby that Karen and I are expecting in March. To be effective in ensuring that the expanded PDSO network provides a very high quality and value for money service to its clients. And to get my hair cut more often so that I don\'t end up looking like James May from BBC’s Top Gear.”

15. David Sanders, Marketing Director, Maclay Murray & Spens
“Our New Year resolution is to continue to innovate and adapt to changes in the market. Having notched up some significant milestones during the last 12 months, we will be looking to cement our position at the forefront of the legal profession.”

16. Brian Inkster, Managing Partner, Inksters
“At weekends to stay away from my office and keep my wife away from her office (she is an architect with Page\\Park) with a view to becoming Husband of the Year 2007.”

17. Austin Lafferty, Managing Partner, Austin Lafferty
“I must lose two stone, if we are still allowed imperial measure (I know lots of Euro lawyers – the wine\'s good but they’re soooo metric, mon chere). When I got married 25 years ago, I was 12 stone. I am now 15+, but I am no slob. I did the half-marathon in Glasgow this year and several 10k\'s. Fit but fat, that\'s me. Next year – lose the spag carbonara, unpeel un banane.”

18. Lord Albatrossach, retired Judge and Firm columnist
“I will never again write for less than £1 a word. Unless I receive such a fee, I intend to obey Arthur Hamilton\'s recent injunction that judges should not to talk to the press, gutter or otherwise.”