Barristers

The Legal Services Board has approved Bar Standards Board proposals to introduce an aptitude test for prospective Bar students. The test aims to weed out the bottom 10% of candidates.

The Bar Standards Board has hit back at criticism on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme of the way in which it conducts disciplinary proceedings against barristers, with claims of “secrecy, incompetence and maladministration”.

A final consultation on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates has been amended at the last minute to take into account objections raised by the board of the Bar Standards Board.

The Bar Standards Board has successfully defended a challenge to the validity of a disciplinary tribunal, in the first case to be argued over flaws in the system of reappointing tribunal members.

Only a third of members of the public who complain to the Bar Standards Board about barristers’ professional conduct believe the process is open and fair, according to a user satisfaction survey.

The Bar Standards Board narrowly defeated a motion proposed by a former Bar chairman that its plans for entity regulation are unhelpful to the justice system, in a debate held in London last week.

A key section of the final consultation on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates has been condemned as “misleading and inaccurate” by a member of the Bar Standards Board, amid controversy over advocacy standards in the youth courts.

The controversy brewing over faulty appointments to Bar disciplinary panels – and the impact this could have on the decisions they took over recent years – has taken a new turn, Legal Futures can reveal.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has launched a bid to regulate non-lawyer immigration advisers. However, at the same time the body that oversees them – the Office for the Immigration Services Commissioner – is seeking to take over the regulation of specialist lawyers.

Law firms are to have an extra year before they must publish staff diversity data, after the Legal Services Board approved Solicitors Regulation Authority plans for a delay. But it was unhappy with the Bar Standards Board’s proposal to exempt chambers of fewer than 10 people.

The Law Society has called on the Legal Services Board to reject changes to the cab-rank rule in the latest stage of the long-running saga over standard contractual terms between barristers and solicitors. The society said they would have an “anti-competitive effect.

The Bar has called on judges to block solicitors appearing before them as plea-only advocates under the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. There were also calls for action to end the “corrupt practice” of criminal defence solicitors demanding referral fees.

The Bar Standards Board is to push back against a Legal Services Board demand that it implement a regulatory regime for immigration specialist barristers by the end of 2012, saying the LSB has failed to produce evidence it is necessary.

With more and more barristers capable of serving the public directly, it may seem like public access is only going to lead to greater competition with solicitors. But, argues senior clerk Scott Baldwin, there is actually a business opportunity here that could benefit both sides.

Twelve regulators and professional bodies from the legal, accountancy, financial and property sectors have finally signed a formal agreement aimed at co-ordinating the oversight of multi-disciplinary practices.