Barristers’ chambers could provide a ‘lifeline’ to small criminal law firms, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC has told the Gazette.

But Green criticised some solicitors who he claimed have threatened to ‘blacklist’ any chambers that bid against them for legal aid contracts.

Green said that when the Legal Services Commission next tenders for criminal contracts, likely to be next year, he expects to see barristers’ chambers putting in bids for work using the model procurement company devised by the Bar Council, known as the ProcureCo.

A ProcureCo allows chambers to bolt a commercial vehicle onto their chambers, which can contract directly with the LSC and other volume purchasers of legal services. The ProcureCo will then be able instruct solicitors and others to perform parts of the work.

Green said that if the coalition government seeks to pursue Labour’s plans to contract the criminal defence market, more than 1,000 firms will be left without contracts. The previous legal aid minister Lord Bach had outlined proposals to reduce the number of criminal firms able to do publicly funded work from 1,700 to just 500.

Green said: ‘The bar could provide a lifeline to small criminal law firms that do not get contracts. They could get work from a ProcureCo.’

He said the LSC will award contracts on the basis that the bidder can provide the full range of criminal work, from police station advice to the Crown court, so barristers will need to have links with solicitors to fulfill this.

Barristers and solicitors will be bidding against each other for work, said Green, but they will also need each other, and will be included in each other’s bids or form panel arrangements.

However, Green said the prospect of large sets competing in contracting exercises has alarmed some solicitors, who have threatened to blacklist any chambers that bid against them, and stop referring them work.

‘There are some solicitors’ firms, especially in big cities, which are making threats that if barristers’ chambers bid against them, they will blacklist them and won’t instruct them,’ he said.

Green added: ‘This is an irrational stance, held by the minority. The vast majority of solicitors have worked out that they need to enter into sensible discussions with chambers and think how they can work together. We’re natural partners.’