Budgetary cuts of seismic proportions; economic slump; legal aid revolutions; Jackson on costs; alternative business structures; quality assurance for advocates... it never ends. Myriad pressures are forcing the legal profession to look deeply into itself.

For the bar this reappraisal is searching. We are intent on making it as positive and constructive as these difficult times allow. We have no desire to move beyond our traditional strength of advocacy and related activity. But we are examining all aspects of those activities and how to make the profession stronger and leaner and better able to cope with these trying times. And in all of this the bar is working out how it relates to solicitors both in house and in practice.

There is going to be a shift in the alignment but when that shift ends, the bar and solicitors will still essentially be complementary professions that have enormous strengths to give to each other.

For example, take international commercial work. Of the top six firms on the planet four are headquartered in London – a growing testament to the strength of the City firm. In international litigation, arbitration and mediation, the bar and solicitors work well together. We both enjoy reputations which are second to none; and that reputation is enhanced by the fact that we all work under rigorous codes of conduct. Back home, when disputes come to court, a judiciary of unimpeachable integrity adjudicates.

Prime targetBack on more familiar territory, in the publicly funded arena there is a real prospect of deep change. Since the Ministry of Justice must perforce make cuts, legal aid is a prime target. The system will be torn apart and reconstructed. In that reconstruction, the bar will contract directly with the Legal Services Commission. We will be setting up barrister-led units of substantial size to make bids. But, although we will readily take on the obligation to conduct litigation ourselves (and our own rules increasingly allow this), in all likelihood that will be subcontracted out to panels of solicitors.

The Bar Council is intent on ensuring that the bar not only survives the oncoming legal aid storm but emerges all the stronger. Sets of chambers are on average large, highly skilled and experienced units. The clerking teams and practice managers are rapidly gearing up for new legal aid systems.

Constructive discussionsI am aware that many sets of chambers are already having discussions with solicitors across the country and I am told that solicitors, being professionals, are talking positively and constructively about new ways of working and collaborative approaches to working. There is huge scope for collaborative working between the bar and solicitors.

We also predict that many advocates who are serious about advocacy as a profession will in due course seek to join the bar. They are very welcome to join us now, and will continue to be in the future. The bar has behind it a professional support mechanism which is extraordinary. There are the inns, the circuits and the specialist bar associations. These are large, well-funded organisations devoted exclusively to the best interests of advocates. As new professional developments such as quality assurance for advocates grow, then the training and support for these functions will be found par excellence in these bodies. There can be none to compare. And, on top, the Bar Council is an organisation that is devoted 100% to the regulation and vigorous representation of advocates.

We are already seeing an increasing number of solicitor higher court advocates who wish to make their careers in advocacy qualifying at the bar. Our doors are, and will remain, open.

The legal press loves the hint of a bust up between the Bar Council and Chancery Lane (and it would be true to say that we enjoy an occasional good-natured bit of knockabout ourselves). But in England and Wales we have two professions of enormous merit and we can and should work productively together long into the future.

Nicholas Green QC is chairman of the Bar Council