‘Putting advocacy at the heart of everything we do’ is the slogan of public relations giant Weber Shandwick. No doubt this philosophy is well honed when making the case for blue-chip clients like General Motors and Microsoft. But it’s especially appropriate when it comes to Obiter’s favourite Weber Shandwick client, the Bar Council.

The PR agency, which provides the council with ‘political and media relations consultancy services’ was especially active in last week’s Access to the Bar day (that’s A2B, for readers down wif da yoof).

Weber Shandwick’s absolutely fabulous Gray’s Inn Road headquarters in London pro­vided the setting for some of the biggest kickings dealt out to solicitors since Charles Dickens was doing his stuff.

Anthony Speaight QC set the tone of the event by describing some solicitors as ‘extremely touchy’ about direct access to barristers. While solicitors were quite happy to give barristers a ribbing on advocacy rights, ‘it gives rising amusement that they do not like it when their exclusive areas are under threat’.

He cited cases in which a barrister’s services cost only £6,000, whereas a barrister and solicitor working in tandem would have billed 10 times as much.

To reinforce the image of solicitors suffocating under piles of moolah, Speaight claimed that in one high-profile case a witness statement went through 16 drafts, costing £750,000.

And the advantages of direct access don’t stop at the price tag, apparently. It’s really about ‘empowerment and cutting out the middle-man,’ according to Marc Beaumont, vice chair of the Access to the Bar committee. Solicitors ‘do not promote alternative dispute resolution’, he alleged.

Philip Newman, a barrister at 42 Bedford Row, provided the direct access battle cry: ‘The word needs spreading!’ This vision of the poor and dispossessed beating a path to chambers doors came with a word of caution, however. ‘The only problem is the potential bonkers client,’ Newman noted.

Perhaps solicitors do have some use, after all.