Barristers

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson has responded to calls for all advocates – including solicitors – to be regulated by the Bar Standards Board by saying: “Are they having a laugh?” And SAHCA chief says QASA and ABSs give solicitor-advocates a “golden opportunity” to compete with barristers.

The number of students seeking to become barristers is rising sharply but pupillages are falling, with an Oxbridge education appearing to be of growing importance, according to Bar figures.

The Ministry of Justice has thrown cold water on the Bar Council’s call to abolish the Legal Services Board (LSB). On Saturday, Bar Council chairman Michael Todd QC said the new Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling, was sympathetic to concerns that the legal profession is over-regulated.

The new Lord Chancellor has said he is “sympathetic” with the notion that the legal profession is over-regulated, the chairman of the Bar Council has claimed as he stepped up his call for the Legal Services Board to be scrapped.

The Bar Council has issued a sharp rebuke to the Legal Services Board for criticising how it is approaching the legal services reforms, saying that while “our regulators talk about key performance indicators, we talk about the interests of justice”.

Self-employed barristers collectively earn around £2bn a year, more than doctors in private practice, according to Bar Council estimates. In a paper issued yesterday, the Bar Council said “the Bar overall continues to be a successful profession in terms of overall earnings”.

Solicitors are putting barristers under “increasing pressure” to enter into referral fee agreements, to the detriment of clients, the public interest and the junior Bar, the Bar Council has claimed. It also warned that providing junior barristers at discounted rates can amount to a referral fee.

The chairman of the Legal Services Board has strongly criticised the Bar Council for its approach to dealing with the board, characterising its reaction to the Legal Services Act reforms as “walking backwards slowly”.

Barristers are likely to be allowed to form partnerships next year and before they can create alternative business structures, the Bar Standards Board said last week. Meanwhile, it dropped a proposal to force barristers to withdraw from cases where a client refuses to reveal previous convictions to the court.

The Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) should recruit a high-powered team of young lawyers to vet its proposals and provide fresh insights into the future of the legal marketplace, Professor Richard Susskind has urged.

Vulnerable asylum seekers are at risk of “serious detriment” from a complex asylum process and potentially “sloppy” work by immigration advisers, according to the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

It is solicitors, and not barristers, who are to blame for the decline in advocacy standards that has led to the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the Bar Council has claimed, while also strongly opposing the creation of ‘plea-only advocates’.

The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) will drive many solicitors out of criminal law, the Law Society has warned. It is the latest hostile response to the final consultation on the scheme ahead of its introduction in January.

The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is unlawful, unnecessary and unworkable and will be judicially reviewed if it goes ahead, criminal law barristers will warn this week in a response to the final consultation seen by this website.

Barristers using the new escrow account so they can deal with client money will not retain any interest, it has emerged. The Bar Council’s BARCO scheme should also prove difficult to defraud, according to the man who has led its development.