Yes, I know it is Winter, but the profession is not short of troublesome issues and it does give me an excuse to share with you the best advert I ever saw. The outdoor centre beside the Donoghue v Stevenson bench in Paisley (my wonderfully cultured home town) had a sign up a good few years ago, off season, in November, saying, ‘Now is the Winter of our Discount Tents’. I still laugh at that.

What I don’t laugh one bit at is a profession continuing to ape the bank behaviours of the last 20 years. And principally going bust with relative impunity. Profession? Disrepute? Are we all content to see firms blithely go bust move on and not give a monkey’s?

I am not. Yes, my granny did bring me up as excessively financially prudent and, yes, I know far fewer people now see a moral dimension in debt, but if solicitors are uncaring about it then we now have reached time to dust off the old LSS chestnut-Solvency Testing.

I do believe that solicitors now work in a more turbulent environment (a large part of which is down to an oversupply of lawyers. Attend one of my seminars and I’ll explain). And that they should be allowed the facility of limited liabilty, but we will peril it in the eyes of the public and politicians if we keep up our present run rate.

I am not talking about some unfortunate early casualties of the recession, such as Tods Murray, I am talking about a continuing stream of big names some nine years since the Masters of the Universe got caught.

Ross Harper over £4m apparently. McClure Naismith-thought to be also north of £4m,( but I spoke to partners there when it broke and they did not have a scooby how far down the toilet they had gone). And reported in SLN last week Hamitlon Burns-another well-regarded Glasgow name. How much? Read the article. Depends on the final HMRC figure, but well, well over half a million.

But, some of you may say, no client money issues here, and who cares about the Revenue and ordinary creditors? Get a life. In the words of the late lamented LSS President Michael Scanlan, “sh*t happens”.

Yes it does, but these cases – and there have been more – add up to about £10m. And they don’t come about overnight. Are there still fraudulent trading provisions? Reasons given for HB were legal aid rates (yes, they are dire but ‘twas ever thus) and “levels of historic debt”. Oh, by that you mean an excess of drawings over earnings for a significant period? What cars were the partners driving?

And the people I feel most sorry for? The staff. Generally not told at all or only on the day it all ends and the partners sail away in their lifeboats. And worst of all? Trainees. Should you be allowed to take on four trainees when you are vergens?

And there is seldom any mea culpa. No sackcloth and ashes. More ‘It Wisnae Me-A Big Boy Done It And Ran Away Defences’. Conduct unbecoming of the regiment.

And the staff will tell people. And clients will wonder. And the public will notice. And the vast majority of honest, solvent, belt-tightening solicitors will despair at the reputation of the profession. And all this at a time when the government has established another of its Bash Solicitors Working Groups.

I may be in a older age quartile, but I do believe that like insurance, fidelity and regulation, solvency is something the people of Scotland should be able to take as a given when they consult a solicitor. I used to say at seminars that, strangely, as a solicitor you did not want your competitors to go bust (as that would have ramifications for you) – just be mildly unsuccessful.

I do believe that there is a strong ethical underpinning involved in legal practice and it is hard to square that with some of our recent headlines. And as for ethics…wait till the next blog.

No musical headline or quiz. Too depressing. Next time-I promise.

And finally congratulations to John Peel fan Richard Thomson of East Dunbartonshire for winning last month’s music quiz and being patient in waiting for his bottle of Rocky Road Shiraz.