The president’s address on the future relationship between barristers and solicitors is wholly commendable, not least his suggestion that both solicitors and barristers undergo the same training.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the bar to broaden its intake, the costs of training for the bar and, optimistically, assuming a seat in chambers, the inevitable risk of meagre earnings for several years thereafter means that the intake is substantially skewed towards those with independent means who are often privately educated. This not only discourages able candidates from other backgrounds, but more insidiously maintains the public’s impression that the bar and the judiciary are predominantly public school- and Oxbridge-educated, and from a class apart.

Far better that all lawyers should train in firms, whether of solicitors or mixed practices, where they are adequately paid during training. Those who found their talents lay in advocacy could subsequently seek to move to the bar and practise independently. Not only would the social skewing of the bar’s intake be appreciably lessened, but also barristers would have had the salutary experience both of working much more closely with clients, and equally of instructing barristers, and thus be far more aware of how their lay and professional clients perceive them.

Richard Burnett-Hall, solicitor, Stockbridge, Hampshire