Bar Chairman Calls for Bar to Modernise

1 March 2010

The Chairman of the Bar, Nicholas Green QC, will today call for the Bar to continue to modernise as it enters a new era of legal services provision.  Speaking at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Legal and Constitutional Affairs in the House of Lords, Green will set out the challenges facing the Bar following the implementation of the Legal Services Act and will outline how the Bar is responding. 

The meeting, entitled The Legal Services Act: Opportunities for Consumers and Professionals, will be chaired by Lord Brennan QC.  David Edmonds, the Chairman of the Legal Services Board, and Bob Heslett, the President of the Law Society, will address the group alongside Nicholas Green. 

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Chairman of the Bar, Nicholas Green said:

‘The Bar Standards Board took a historic decision in November 2009 to change the Bar’s practice rules. If these changes are approved by Legal Services Board, barristers could take advantage of new structures to deliver specialist advisory and advocacy services and to work in partnership with other providers of legal services.

‘The Bar is currently facing huge regulatory as well as market challenges. In order to continue to provide services which clients and consumers continue to need, the Bar needs to adapt its business model and consider new ways of working. I am confident we can do this. Indeed, it is clear to me that many Chambers are already well advanced in their plans for change. 

‘The Bar Council has been running a series of nationwide road shows about the future of the profession in the new regulatory environment. Taking account of the feedback we have received from practitioners up and down the country, we expect shortly to provide guidance on options for change for Chambers to consider and adapt as they see fit to suit their own needs and circumstances.

‘The feedback we have receiving from the profession has been enormously positive. It is clear that many barristers, particularly those with publicly funded practices which are under considerable financial pressure from planned cuts in legal aid, are eager to develop their business models. Many chambers are developing innovative new models of practice.’

He continued:

‘The Bar Council is also keen to ensure that the new ways of working (through ProcureCos, for example) will enable the profession to be in a position compete aggressively with other advocacy providers for all kinds of advisory and advocacy work.

He added:

‘The Bar has huge competitive advantages compared with many advocacy providers, on price and quality. Its cost base is so much cheaper. The Bar can provide real value. The changes we are exploring with the profession and others are designed to enable the valuable specialist advisory and advocacy services the Bar has provided for so long to become more readily available. That must be in the interests of clients and the profession. It is manifestly in the public interest. The Bar is a modern and forward-looking profession which seeks to maintain and enhance the quality of service to all clients. The time has come to embrace change and I am pleased the Bar is responding so well.’

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. For more information please contact the Bar Council Press Office on 020 7222 2525

2. The General Council of the Bar is the Approved Regulator of the Bar of England and Wales. It discharges its regulatory functions through the independent Bar Standards Board. It represents the Bar by:

  • Promoting the specialist advocacy and advisory services of barristers;
  • Ensuring access to justice on terms that are fair both to the public and practitioners;
  • Promoting the high quality training and professional development of all barristers to ensure the highest standards of practice and ethical behaviour;
  • Working for the efficient and cost-effective administration of justice;
  • Encouraging access to, and diversity within, the profession so that it is open to all people of ability whatever their background; and
  • Strengthening and developing the work and the values of the Bar at home and abroad.