Two barristers have set up a business targeting direct access work, as they move to embrace what they say is the fusion of the two branches of the profession.

Barrister-Direct, which gives advice on personal injury cases, aims to enable clients to avoid the delay and costs of instructing both a solicitor and a barrister separately. Its site says the venture removes the need to engage a solicitor.

Ian Skeate, one of its founders, told the Gazette that the Bar Standards Board-regulated entity takes advantage of the ‘changing legal landscape and the opening up of the legal profession’.

He added: ‘This seems the way to go as the two professions are becoming increasingly merged.’

Skeate and Andrew Mckie, who co-founded the business, are qualified to conduct litigation. They have also taken a solicitor on board as Skeate said solicitors ‘have their own skills and training that can complement those [of] barristers’.

He stressed that the advantage of enabling clients to instruct a barrister directly is that barristers can be involved with cases as they come in without having to be formally instructed.