Craft Lawyers a Reprise?

I was interviewed yesterday by an academic involved in a research project on Legal Aid regulation. It proved a fascinating hour and a half.
Of most interest was that she has independently arrived at our conclusion that this is the last generation of “craft lawyers”. This is a theme we have (over)stated for some time to juxtapose the delivery of legal advice to the need actively to manage franchising and contractual matters.
Of course the advent of Peer Review alters this balance creating the need for “craft lawyering” to be evident from case files. It doesn’t however remove the need to focus upon the regulatory requirements. Indeed if this weeks evidence, from someone engaged in an appeal against a PR result, is anything to go by it is franchise style file management issues (or a file beauty contest as he called it) which will make the main difference between competent and competent plus gradation.