The shape of things to come... and the Carter bandwagon

For an early sign of the import of David Edmonds's appointment as chairman of the Legal Services Board watch Des Hudson. If the Law Society's ambitious chief executive announces his departure by Christmas, then it is a fair bet that he thinks the game is up for the current tripartite division of his society and a good few of its members as well.

Hudson has done well to uplift flagging morale both at the society and among a good section of his members. He has brought legal aid practitioners back into the Law Society's fold by a combination of shrill drum-banging, lucky litigation and the shrewd personnel decision to entice legal aid guru Richard Miller from the Legal Aid Practitioners Group. It is not really his fault that Jack Straw remains determined to drive down legal aid costs and challenge the autonomy of the legal profession, or that those in charge of the society before him rolled over so easily on such matters as the external ownership