FAQ 21

Q21. I would like to practise as a sole practitioner. What must I do?

A21. The Code of Conduct provides that, before you can practise on your own, you must have been in practice for at least 3 years following the completion of pupillage from a Chambers or Chambers or office where there has been a barrister or solicitor who has been in practice for 6 years out of the last 8 and who, for the previous two years, has made such a practice his primary occupation and held full rights of audience. The overwhelming majority of Chambers will have such a person. Employed barristers who have been in practice for a number of years but who have not been in the office of a qualified person can apply to the Bar Council for a waiver.

The time includes all time spent in full-time practice after completion of a year’s pupillage. Third 6 month pupillages, squatting and door tenancies all count towards this period providing work has been done from the office of a qualified person and it has been your primary occupation. If the door tenancy has, for example, been combined with a large amount of time spent lecturing or on other work it will not count for the purpose of fulfilling the 3 year requirement.

If you meet these requirements, you should inform our records section of the address from which you will practise and also the BMIF. The Code of Conduct requires you to have access to adequate library facilities for your practice and to the ethics & standards provisions to ensure that your practice is administered properly. You do not need to have a clerk. There is further guidance available in the Rules and Guidance section of the Bar Council’s website.

No formal permission is required from the Bar Council in order to set up as a sole practitioner. It is, usual, however, for the Bar Council to ask a representative of the Circuit on which the Chambers is based to visit the Chambers to look at the arrangements.