Timothy Dutton QC considers the impact of the Legal Services Act on the independent Bar
Barristers tend to predict the demise of the independent or “Referral Bar” with monotonous regularity, only to be proved wrong at each turn.In the early 1990s the prediction was made with real anguish as the leaders of the profession saw exclusive rights of audience removed in the higher courts, where barristers had for centuries enjoyed a monopoly.
Demise came there none: the Bar responded by improving its standards of training, maintaining high standards of regulation with comparatively low levels of complaint and a good complaints record, with occasional praise coming from the Legal Services Ombudsman.
What then will be the effect of the Legal Services Act 2007? True to form there are those who predict Armageddon. But there are others who welcome the opportunities which the Act is said to provide. There are two issues which face the Bar:
How its regulator the Bar Standards Board (BSB) should respond to the Act. Should it permit partnerships of barristers and solicitors, should it regulate barristers as barristers in
