A growing number of barristers are looking to offer services directly to the public, which could help them gain legal aid contracts, the head of the bar told delegates.
Peter Lodder QC (pictured) said hundreds of barristers had already completed the public access training courses that the bar began running last year.
He said: ‘This style of practice is not new; but it is time to realise the full extent of the opportunities of a changing regulatory environment and economic climate.’
Lodder said the scheme’s ‘critical importance’ is underlined by proposed cuts to legal aid. In some circumstances, clients might find it cheaper to hire a barrister than go through the legal aid process. ‘Some clients who may be eligible for legal aid might prefer not to accept it because the contribution they are required to make is greater than the amount they would be charged by a public access barrister,’ he said.
‘I think it likely that through developing public access practice, sets will begin to learn the systems and procedures that will enable them to bid for legal aid contracts.’
The chairman said many at the bar are already offering their services direct to the public, citing examples of a chancery silk, an employment junior and a ‘wide range’ of family practitioners. He noted a criminal set with a programme of direct access in association with accountants and management consultants, and another chambers directly assisting road haulage contractors.
Lodder told a press briefing: ‘The bar has to adapt to the changing economic and regulatory circumstances and reposition itself, or we will not survive.’
Chairman-elect Michael Todd QC said public access was not a question of competing with solicitors, but of providing clients with a cost-effective service.
Max Hill QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said criminal barristers are willing to engage in public access work and provide a ‘one-stop legal service’, but are being blocked by the current Code of Conduct. He called for the Bar Standards Board to progress with rule changes to widen the scope of direct access work that criminal barristers can do.
‘We have the ludicrous situation that over 5,000 members of the bar have trained and paid for accreditation for direct access work, yet in crime the code permits next to nothing by way of suitable cases,’ he said.
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