"I don't think name calling and exaggeration helps," McLachlin told reporters at an annual press conference at a gathering of Canadian lawyers. "We should recognize there are hundreds of thousands who work for relatively low salaries and lawyers have always been concerned to provide access to justice."

The grim assessment of lawyers was contained in a Maclean's magazine cover story, published in the Aug. 6 edition, based on an interview with lawyer Philip Slayton, author of the new book, Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada's Legal Profession.

The Canadian Bar Association and numerous legal commentators have condemned the article as a disgraceful smear job, particularly the magazine cover, which screamed: "Lawyers are Rats."

Lawyers say that the book, and the magazine article, took isolated anecdotes about unethical lawyers and used them to tarnish the reputation of the entire profession.

Lawyers also faced criticism last week from retiring Justice John Gomery, the straight-shooting Quebec Superior Court judge who led the federal sponsorship inquiry, that the justice system is on a "suicidal" path that cannot be reversed unless lawyers lower their fees and governments put more money into legal aid.

It's a theme also echoed in Slayton's book. The former Bay Street lawyer and dean of law at the University of Western Ontario says lawyers are doing very little to rectify the problem that the middle class, who don't qualify for legal aid, simply can't afford to hire a lawyer.

McLachlin, in a speech Saturday to the Canadian Bar Association, lamented the growing problem of the justice system's inaccessibility, which has led to many litigants showing up in court without lawyers.

But talking to reporters later, she stopped short of joining a growing call for lawyers to lower their fees.

"We need balance in the picture," said McLachlin.

The problem is a much broader one, and judges, lawyers, and governments need to come up with joint solutions, she said.

"It's important to recognize that the legal profession does take its responsibility to the public seriously on the whole," she said. "At the same time, it might be necessary to introduce reforms to see how we can make the system work better, to ensure the system isn't too expensive and that's a complex and long discussion it has to be held."

McLachlin also pointed out that lawyers often do pro-bono (free) legal work, even in time-consuming cases that reach the Supreme Court of Canada.

The most recent national figures on lawyers' fees, contained in a two-year-old survey by Canadian Lawyer magazine, peg the average hourly rate for a lawyer with 10 years experience from $170 to $260, depending on the region.

The average rate for a contested divorce in 2005 was $8,505, while it cost an average of $20,830 to go to court for two days in a civil trial.

The magazine did not publish an annual survey in 2006 and 2007 because not enough lawyers responded to make the results meaningful.

In her speech, McLachlin also tried to quell concerns that the Supreme Court of Canada's output is plummeting.

The judges are hearing only about 50 appeals this year, significantly fewer than the average number of about 90 annually over the last decade, a shortfall that the court noted in its latest report to Parliament.

McLachlin said that the drop in cases is only a "blip" rather than a trend, and that she expects next year to be packed with appeals.

"You have to look at five-year trends and we are as busy or busier than we have ever been," she said.

McLachlin said that the court, which hears cases of national importance, strives to hear about 80 to 85 cases annually.