Letter: when you can't say no?

The latest of Stephen Gold’s brilliant series of articles (“Thanks, but no thanks”, Journal, September 2015, 47), replete with eminently practical advice, is of particular importance because solicitors have been known to take on more work than they can cope with, generally owing to their legal practice being undercapitalised rather than to personal greed, with dire consequences.

However, occasions can arise when a prospective client with an urgent legal case presents herself or himself in reception after having been turned down by a number of other solicitors. In such cases, professional ethics may constrain one to take on the case, even on a pro bono publico basis.

I recall that my very first House of Lords case was one such, my having to formulate and lodge the appeal documentation on behalf of the client in question with only 24 hours before the deadline for doing so would have expired.

George Lawrence Allen, Edinburgh