Barristers

The Legal Services Board has rejected criticism from the Bar Council over its use of leading City law firm Hogan Lovells during the investigation into changes to the cab-rank rule.

Applicants for pupillage who are white, male, attended a fee-paying school or Oxbridge, or have parents who are educated to degree level are all more likely to succeed than those without such characteristics, Bar Standards Board research has found.

The Bar Standards Board has identified around 85 disciplinary cases involving barristers that could be invalidated by the fact that tribunal members who sat in judgment over them were ineligible for the role.

The UK is on the cusp of a “litigation revolution” involving boutique alternative business structures offering externally-funded contingency fee deals, according to the chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, speaking at yesterday’s Legal Futures conference.

The Legal Services Board is to examine whether ‘general legal advice’ given to consumers should be regulated, it announced today, but has rejected the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s call for all solicitor-type services to be reserved.

Deteriorating standards of criminal advocacy are having an impact on the administration of justice – with solicitor-advocates to blame, a Bar Standards Board survey has claimed.

An 11-man working party will meet for the first time today to advise on how to introduce contingency fees for court work in England and Wales. The working party has been set up by the Civil Justice Council.

Around 550 disciplinary cases involving barristers could be affected by the failure to validly appoint some of the tribunal members who sat in judgment on them, we can reveal. Specialist regulatory lawyers are watching closely to see if cases can be reopened.

The “end is in sight” for the Legal Services Board (LSB) and it can be abolished in about three years’ time, the Bar’s regulator has told the government. The Bar Council stopped short of this, but said the LSB should be reined in.

Chambers with fewer than 10 staff and/or members should not have to publish the results of the diversity survey that they all have to complete this year, their regulator is to tell the Legal Services Board.

The Bar Standards Board has given way on the final outstanding issue on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates and it is now to begin in the summer. Plea-only advocates, who had been at the centre of a major disagreement, will not have to undergo judicial assessment.

The validity of a large number of disciplinary findings against barristers is in question as a result of errors over the appointment of disciplinary tribunal members, it has emerged. It could allow those who have been disbarred, suspended or reprimanded to reopen their cases.

Six criminal law barristers have set up a chambers structured as a partnership and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Artesian Law is already looking to expand due to the number of instructions it has received.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has called upon the ongoing Legal Education and Training Review to propose a revalidation scheme for lawyers. At the same event, delegates were told that judicial evaluation in the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates is flawed.

The Legal Services Board has given the clearest hint yet that it is supporting the position of solicitors in the row over the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. Legal Futures also understands that the LSB is pushing the Bar Standards Board to accept a compromise.