Practice Management

Article: 3rd Bar Council Visit to India Strengthens Links between Indian and English Profession

A large delegation of 20 barristers and chambers’ staff visited Mumbai and Kolkata between 22 and 27 November. This visit took place in the context of the International Committee’s strategic plan objective to raise the profile of the Bar in India over...

Article: Advisory Panel: recruiting 2009 membership

Panel membership will entail being part of a network of individuals (10 approx) with the relevant experience who will share views, perspectives and ideas relating to changing working practices at the Bar, post Legal Services Act. Commitment will be...

Article: Alternative Business Structures

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is working towards making decisions about barristers joining Legal Disciplinary Practices and Alternative Business Structures. As explained in the BSB’s response to the Legal Services Board’s discussion paper ’Wider acces...

Article: Authorisation to practise arrangements

The Bar Standards Board has recently published a consultation paper on proposals for revisions to barristers’ practising arrangements. In particular the paper covers: 1. The introduction of an authorisation to practise regime;2. The regulatory...

Article: Awareness Toolkit training

Equality & DiversityIn response to a growing demand from the Bar for Equality and Diversity Awareness Training, and to the recommendation for such training in the Neuberger Report on Entry to the Bar, the Bar Council Equality and Diversity Committee...

Article: Bar Chairman calls for Bar to modernise

THE Chairman of the Bar, Nicholas Green QC, has called for the Bar to continue to modernise as it enters a new era of legal services provision. Speaking at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Legal and Constitutional Affairs in the...

Article: Bar Council urges caution over Alternative Business Structures

THE Bar Council has published its response to the Legal Services Board’s wide-ranging discussion paper on Alternative Business Structures (ABS). The response from its Working Group on ABS reflects the Bar Council’s support for a pragmatic and...

Article: Bar Council welcomes BSB’s decisions on new practice structures

THE Bar Council has welcomed the decisions taken by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) which will permit members of the Bar to supply legal services within new business structures. The BSB has approved the creation of Legal Disciplinary Practices (LDPs)...

Article: Bar faces fundamental change in provision of legal services

Barristers have been given the go-ahead to supply legal services within new business structures. On 20 November the Bar Standards Board (“BSB” ) approved the creation of legal disciplinary practices (“LDP”) and, in principle, barrister-only partner...

Article: Bar holds symposium on its future

Direct access across the board is inevitable for the Bar, according to the Chairman of the Bar Council.

Article: Bar Standards Board to regulate entities

At its most recent Board meeting, the regulator of the Bar in England and Wales took the decision to regulate advocacy-focused Alternative Business Structures, Legal Disciplinary Practices and Barrister Only Entities, collectively referred to as...

Article: Bar working party

A working party of about 100 barristers, clerks and practice managers from the criminal, family, civil, commercial and chancery Bar has been set up to advise sets of chambers on how to contract directly with the LSC.

Article: Bar ‘setting the pace’ on social mobility - new report

THE Bar Council, in conjunction with the Inns of Court, has launched No bar to the Bar, a review of the diverse measures adopted by the profession to help all those of ability to have access to a career as a barrister, regardless of their background....

Article: BSB and Barristers in business

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has confirmed it will regulate advocacy-focused Alternative Business Structures (ABS), Legal Disciplinary Practices (LDPs) and barrister-only entities, but not multi-disciplinary practices.The BSB said entities under its...

Article: BSB approves fundamental changes

The Bar Standards Board has paved the way for fundamental changes in barristers’ working practices by giving approval for barristers to supply legal services through the legal structures known as Legal Disciplinary Practices (LDPs). The BSB has taken...

Article: BSB calls for further research on ABS

The Bar’s regulatory body has said it would be “wrong” for it to permit barristers to enter into Alternative Business Structures (“ABS”) without further research. Responding to the Legal Services Board’s (“LSB”) discussion paper on developing a...

Article: BSB session at the Bar Conference - Saturday 6 November

The BSB workshop will cover the changes in regulation brought about by the Legal Services Act 2007 and the new regulatory entities that affect the profession, including the Bar Standards Board, Legal Services Board and the Office of Legal Complaints.

Article: BSB survey

The Bar Standards Board is to conduct a YouGov survey among barristers, clerks and practice managers on their opinions and expectations regarding the new business structures permitted under the Legal Services Act 2007.  The survey will be emailed by...

Article: Chambers monitoring 2010

The Bar Standards Board launched a comprehensive Chambers monitoring scheme on the 18 October 2010.

Article: Chambers to publish diversity data?

Every set of barristers’ chambers would need to gather and publish statistics on the diversity of their members and staff, under new Legal Services Board (“LSB”) proposals.

Article: Clients come first, says Deech

The task of providing “independent quality advice” must take centre stage in any decisions on barristers’ involvement in new legal structures under the Legal Services Act 2007.

Article: Consultation

The BSB currently has an open consultation on authorisation to practise arrangements, which has the deadline of 1 June 2010 for responses. 

Article: Diversity in the legal profession

Barristers’ chambers should adopt formal, regulated mentoring schemes to encourage diversity, a Legal Services Board (“LSB”) report has recommended.

Article: Future for LDPs still on hold

Barristers will find out in November if they can become managers or shareholders of Legal Disciplinary Practices (“LDPs”).By then, the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) will have analysed further research it commissioned into the regulatory implications of the...

Article: Historic liberalisation of permitted practice at the Bar

The Legal Services Board approves Bar Standards Board applications designed to relax provisions in Code of Conduct for barristers’ working practices

Article: Legal disciplinary practices and barrister partnerships

The BSB, as mentioned in the December edition of BSB News, has issued a consultation paper and proposed amendments to the Code in respect of barrister involvement in SRA regulated bodies. The consultation paper also sets out provisional views on...

Article: Legal Services Board - Consultations

The Legal Services Board has a number of consultation papers out for consideration now and there are more to come through the rest of the year. The consultation papers concern various aspects of how the legal profession will be regulated in the...

Article: New business structures appeal to barristers

Barristers are eyeing up the opportunities presented by the new legal business structures, with 43 per cent interested in setting up shop with solicitors.

Article: New rules to allow barristers to become managers or employees of Alternative Business Structures

In April 2011 we decided that barristers should be permitted to practice as managers or employees of Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) regulated by other Approved Regulators when Part 5 of the Legal Services Act 2007 comes into force.

Article: Review group proposes major changes to CPD for Barristers

A review of CPD for barristers, commissioned by the Bar Standards Board and chaired by Derek Wood CBE QC, has recommended major revisions of the system.

Article: Standard Rate VAT Reduction

From 1 December 2008 the standard rate of VAT will be reduced from 17.5% to 15%. This guide sets out key points of law which barristers and their clerks will need to be aware of in order to implement the change. It also responds to typical questions...

Article: Survey of profession on new business structures

The Legal Services Act has dramatically reformed the regulatory landscape for barristers, allowing practise in new business structuresalongside other barristers, legal professionals and nonlawyers.

Article: Tax evaders

Revenue and Customs disclosed that 57 barristers were caught evading tax, in a report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.

Article: The keeping of records in publicly-funded work

The Legal Services Commission, in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service, has recently raised concerns regarding the keeping of records by barristers in publicly-funded work. The BSB therefore wishes to remind barristers of their duty to give...

Article: The keeping of records in publicly-funded work

The Legal Services Commission, in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service, has recently raised concerns regarding the keeping of records by barristers in publicly-funded work. The BSB therefore wishes to remind barristers of their duty to give...

Article: The Review of CPD

Education and training for the Bar is a complex process which, first and foremost, needs to be approached in an holistic way. The different stages - academic, vocational and pupillage, not to mention further continued professional development (CPD)...

Article: The “all change” road show

At  a packed South Eastern Circuit “road show” on 12 January Baroness Deech, Chair of the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”), described the changes made by the BSB last November to the way in which barristers can supply legal services as “the most important...

Article: Third consultation: Implications for the Bar of the Legal Services Act 2007

The BSB published on 27 September its third consultation on the implications for the Bar of the Legal Services Act 2007.

Article: VAT change

From 1 January 2010 the standard rate of value added tax  will be increased from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent. The Bar Council has published a guide setting out the key points of law which barristers and their clerks will need to be aware of in order ...