Barristers

A majority of barristers think they should be able to conduct litigation whether they are working inside “entities”, such as law firms, or whether they are self-employed, according to emerging findings from the Bar Standards Board’s survey of the profession. There was also a majority in favour of extending public access.

Plans for a contract that will allow barristers to sue solicitors for unpaid fees, and a blacklist of solicitors who fail to pay up on all cases, rather than just privately funded ones, have been unveiled by the Bar Council.

Barristers were yesterday given the tools to bolt a corporate vehicle onto their chambers which can bid for work, instruct solicitors and also bring clerks and others into ownership roles. The Bar Council’s new business model, dubbed ProcureCo, raises the possibility of barristers competing with solicitors for work.

The first barrister to become a partner in a legal disciplinary practice is a consumer credit specialist in the West Midlands, Legal Futures can reveal. Portia O’Connor, who practises from her own chambers in Birmingham, Pegasus Chambers, set up Pegasus Legal Research in conjunction with solicitor Sameena Kauser.

The Bar Standards Board has fired a warning shot across the bows of its solicitor counterpart, warning that “there will be instances where outcomes-based regulation is likely to be inadequate on its own, even if supplemented by guidance”.

Nicole Curtis has become one of the first barristers to become a partner in a legal disciplinary practice (LDP) after being made up by Penningtons. There are now 186 LDPs, which between them have 210 partners – 83 non-solicitor lawyers and 127 non-lawyers

The Legal Services Board has told barristers’ regulator that it will need to up its game – and perhaps embrace outcomes-focused regulation – to keep pace with liberalisation of the bar. “We expect that the BSB will invest in its skills and regulatory capacity,” it said.

The Legal Services Board has approved plans to allow barristers to become partners in legal disciplinary practices but warned that the changes “go only part of the way towards opening up the market in the interests of consumers”.