The incoming chairman of the Bar Council has made a plea for unity between the two branches of the profession as they face a continued squeeze over legal aid fees.
In an interview with the Gazette, Desmond Browne QC said: ‘There must not be internecine warfare - we must join together and show a common front to the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission.’
His comments come against a background of solicitors and barristers fighting for shares in the fixed £2bn budget for publicly funded legal work.
Browne criticised recent press reports of barristers denigrating the quality of solicitors’ advocacy, saying there is no ‘slanging match’ and the reports do not reflect the reality of the relationship between barristers and solicitors.
In his inaugural speech as chairman this week, Browne said inadequate funding for litigators has caused firms to turn to in-house advocates to represent clients in the higher courts, even if they do not have the requisite experience. ‘Lack of proper funding cannot be allowed to unbalance, still less pervert, the system,’ he said, but he understood the anxieties of the Law Society and its members and fully supported the ‘early and profound’ review of the litigators’ fee scheme.
On the increased use of in-house lawyers by the Crown Prosecution Service, Browne said he had no problem in principle, but challenged the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kier Starmer QC, to show the scheme is as cost-effective, delivers the same quality and does not compromise the diversity of the self-employed bar.
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