Barristers’ chambers will become an ‘attractive alternative’ to law firms for litigation work, a leading industry commentator suggested this week, after the bar’s regulator decided to remove its ban on barristers conducting litigation.

The move will permit barristers to offer a ‘one-stop shop’ service, including both litigation and advocacy, in 2013.

The Bar Standards Board approved the future removal of the prohibition on barristers conducting litigation work at a BSB meeting last week.

Patricia Robertson QC, who led the BSB’s working group on entity regulation, said it was time to ‘grasp the nettle’ and acknowledge that there was ‘a clear demand from some sectors for a one-stop shop’.

Market commentator Professor Stephen Mayson said the provision of litigation services by barristers was likely to prove popular with clients.

He said: ‘Over time, I strongly suspect that several sets of well-organised chambers will become very attractive alternatives to law firms [as clients] for one-stop litigation and advocacy.’

Mayson said that it would be easier for chambers to become effective litigation businesses than it would be for law firms to acquire and optimise higher courts advocacy skills.

But he added that barristers would need to ‘skill up’ or recruit solicitors to be able to compete effectively, as historically they lack the training and skills to conduct litigation or run enterprises.

A Law Society spokesman warned that the move must not lead to a fall in standards.

He said: ‘Conducting litigation will in many cases require significant expertise and support which, at the moment, most barristers do not have.’

He also questioned whether barristers would want to undertake work that would add costs to their business model and detract from their expertise.

Jo Cooper, president of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates, commented: ‘A grab for litigation services may make market sense to some barristers, but the consequence will be the bar losing its status as a referral profession.’

He added that litigation was ‘a complex task requiring developed skills’, and when barristers have tried to combine this with advocacy, for instance in war crimes tribunals, they have been ‘in for a real shock’.

Last week the BSB also decided that it would apply to become a regulator of advocacy-focused alternative business structures, legal disciplinary practices and barrister-only entities, but not multi-disciplinary practices.

It said it would limit the type of structures it sought to regulate, to minimise the regulatory risks and associated costs.

BSB-regulated entities will not be permitted to hold client money, and there will be a 25% limit on non-lawyer owners or managers.

A majority of the owners/managers of BSB-regulated ABSs must be barristers or other advocates with higher rights of audience.

BSB chair Lady Deech said: ‘We hope that this decision will allow barristers the freedom to react to changes in the legal market and permit them to devise new ways of working in order to remain competitive and better serve the public.’

The BSB hopes to begin regulating the new entities from mid-2013, once the Ministry of Justice has approved its plans.

In related news, the BSB this week gave the go ahead for barristers to sue solicitors over unpaid fees.