‘Many, many things must be done, but nothing should ever be done for the first time.’ This cynical bureaucratic maxim, uttered by fictional mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby, was brought to mind by the Bar Standards Board’s latest pronouncement on alternative business structures.

The BSB is not going to allow barristers to join LDPs until there is ‘quantified evidence’ that all forms of ABSs are compatible with the objectives of the Legal Services Act, including evidence that they will ‘bring benefits for consumers’.

Unsurprisingly, the Legal Services Board is unimpressed. Why is the bar commissioning ‘preliminary’ research on ABSs now? The government expressed its support for ABSs, with a view to legislation, in July 2003. The Legal Services Act is nearly two years old; LDPs are up and running and have been for months. Progressive sets, fearful of being left behind, are understandably perplexed.

Is the BSB hoping that all this can somehow be halted – that a new government might be less ‘gung-ho’ about the liberalisation of legal services? Or, more likely, is the BSB’s relative inertia solely attributable to its own (small ‘c’) conservatism?

As the president of the Law Society writes in today’s Gazette, ABSs are a fait accompli. The bar should accept this and move on.