New Bar Training Regulations

The new Regulations are drafted in clearer and more modern language. They also contain a small number of substantial changes, including the following:

• The new Regulations establish an Inns’ Conduct Committee, which will oversee the decision-making of individual Inns of Court on matters of admission and student conduct.
• A new requirement that students must commence the Bar Vocational Course/Bar Professional Training Course within 5 years of completion of the Academic Stage of training replaces the current rule that the Bar Vocational Course must be completed within 7 years of completion of the Academic Stage. (NB Students commencing the Bar Vocational Course in the autumn of 2009 will still be covered by the old rules.)
• The prohibition on a Queen’s Counsel in self-employed practice being on the register of pupil-supervisors has been removed.
• The Regulations give the Bar Standards Board wider powers to grant exemptions from the standard training requirements. In particular, lawyers qualified in other common law jurisdictions are no longer required to supply particulars showing that they have reasonable grounds to expect that they will be able to practise at the Bar of England and Wales in order to qualify for exemptions.

The Bar Training Regulations, together with relevant application forms and guidance notes, can be downloaded from the Qualifications Committee’s section of the Bar Standards Board’s website: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/about/ourcommittees/qualificationscommittee/. For hardcopies of the Bar Training Regulations, please contact Pauline Smith, Training Regulations Officer, on 020 7611 1444 or email psmith@barstandardsboard.org.uk  For any queries relating to the content of the new Regulations, please contact Joanne Dixon, Manager, Qualification Regulations on 020 7611 1444 or email jdixon@barstandardsboard.org.uk