A motion to cap the fee for maintaining a practising certicate at £400 will be put to the vote at the next Law Society AGM on 28 May.

The move, which has been proposed by David Flint of MacRoberts, has been opposed by the Society, who have instead suggested that they "undertake a review of the Society's operations and expenditures", and thereafter take reasonable steps to "enable a material reduction" in the practising certificate fee.

In a widely circulated letter to all members of the profession (which you no doubt already have) Flint says that solicitors do not have the luxury of moving income until it meets costs, but rather have to reduce costs to meet income. "We believe the Society should do likewise," he says.

"The Society has over the past two decades shown a signal inbability to effectively represent the interests of its membership, whilst at the same time growing a bureacracy with an ever increasing cost. At the same time, the interface with the membership has been negligible. I have received more contact from the Society's executive in the last three months since I suggested that I was intending to propose the motion than in the previous 25 years.

"The fact that it is the members who are paying for all this seems to have been lost on a Society which at times appears to have placed its role of representing the interests of its members well behind the role of representing the interests of the public, and wide areas of the Society's membership seem to believe that the Society has failed in upholding the interests of its members. Whether it is in legal aid, home information packs or complaints regulation, the Society is seen by many of its members as lacking."

Flint also suggests that as deregulation approaches, solicitors may resign from the Society and become generic "lawyers", given the few areas of practice that are reserved for solicitors.