A Bar Council taskforce has put forward proposals for barristers or groups of chambers to form procurement companies to contract as a block for publicly funded advocacy work.

The structure would give barristers greater power in negotiating contracts and allow the bar to take advantage of the practice changes permitted under the Legal Services Act 2007.

In his first report as chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, Paul Mendelle QC said a procurement company could pass work to individual counsel in much the same way as chambers do, but it would have more ‘freedom of action’ in the market and greater leverage.

He said the company would be able to contract with any users of advocacy services, be they solicitors, a group or consortium of solicitors or the Legal Services Commission.

Such a vehicle, Mendelle said, would help publicly funded criminal barristers who are struggling with fee cuts and greater competition from solicitor higher court advocates and in-house Crown Prosecution Service advocates.

‘The economic and regulatory rules of the game are changing,’ he said. ‘The bar has to adapt to survive, and I have every confidence in its ability to do so.

‘The changes at first might seem alarming, but when you work them through they are sensible and above all permissive. People do not have to do these things, but if they want to, or feel they have to, these ideas will allow them to adapt.’

In its consultation paper on the structure of self-employed practice, the Bar Standards Board said it was ‘ready to give constructive consideration to any proposals for such organisations that may be put forward’. The consultation has been extended to 9 October.