The number of barristers jumping ship from the bar and joining solicitors’ practices is on the rise. Kate Hanley examines the motives behind this move and the benefits of in-house counsel




As a leading family law silk, Jeremy Posnansky QC is used to dealing with sharks. He is about to depart on vacation to the Galapagos Islands to photograph hammerheads and other equally menacing underwater predators. It should be a breeze: his recent resume includes last year’s landmark McFarlane ruling in the House of Lords and acting against David Blunkett on behalf of Kimberly Quinn.


After 30 years at the bar, Mr Posnansky is leaving 1 Hare Court to join the family law team at London practice Farrer & Co. He is part of a growing number of barristers to up-sticks from the comfort of chambers and move to the vastly different environment of a solicitors’ firm. It is a trend that is likely to gather pace, when the Legal Services Bill finally becomes law and paves the way for legal disciplinary partnerships.



‘I think in part [the trend] is a recognition of the fact that the distinction between the two branches of the profession has reduced in recent years and there’s no need to perpetuate it,’ explains Mr Posnansky. ‘I’m not the first QC to move to a leading firm of solicitors and I very much doubt I’ll be the last.’ Others include Murray Rosen and Ian Gatt from 11 Stone Buildings and Littleton Chambers respectively, who both joined Herbert Smith in 2005 to establish its pioneering in-house advocacy unit.



It begs the question of why a successful barrister would transfer into the bureaucratic world of a law firm, and, more importantly, the unchartered territory of employee or partner status.



‘I think the reasons for making the change are nearly always very personal and there’s not a general reason,’ says Malcolm Gammie QC of One Essex Court. Notably, Mr Gammie, formerly a senior tax partner at City firm Linklaters, is one of the equally growing number of individuals to have moved in the other direction. Many partners at large City law firms retire in their 50s, and it was a desire to avoid this that motivated Mr Gammie – then in his mid-40s – to move across. ‘So I began to build an alternative career and establish myself at the bar,’ he says.



Similarly, Mr Posnansky gives personal reasons for moving: ‘After more than 30 years at the bar and nearly 13 years in silk, I’m ready for a change and a new challenge. The opportunity to join and contribute to a team, like the top team at Farrers, instead of largely working solo, is very attractive.’



He adds that the prospect of doing fewer of the highly contentious, marathon trials that often accompany family work is also very appealing. ‘I think that much of the heavy ancillary relief work, of the type I’ve been doing and which regularly goes to trial, can often be better resolved through mediation. The opportunity to participate in mediation is greater within a firm of solicitors than at the independent bar. But I’m certainly not going to be limiting my work to mediation: I’ll be doing the full range, including advocacy at disputed hearings.’



Mr Posnansky does not intend to re-qualify as a solicitor on joining Farrer & Co. There are no professional or legal requirements to do so. However, until the introduction of legal disciplinary partnerships, which will happen once the Legal Services Bill passes into law, he will not be able to join the firm’s partnership, should he want to.



Leeds-based Patrick Walker is director of advocacy at national firm Hammonds, heading the firm’s ‘Hammonds @dvocacy’ and ‘Property @ction’ units. He was one of the first barristers to transfer to a law firm following the Access to Justice Act 1999, which eased movement between the two arms of the profession. He has never converted to the status of solicitor and remains a director, as opposed to a partner, at the firm, ‘and I’m quite content with that’, he says.



‘When I moved seven years ago, there were a lot of experienced barristers but very few had good, commercial experience within a large organisation,’ says Mr Walker. ‘For me, it was quite a steep learning curve. Since then, transferability has become easier. Barristers are transferring younger and becoming wise to the ways of solicitors’ firms much sooner.’



The skills and benefits that a trained barrister can bring to a law firm are obvious. For the firm itself, there is the public relations coup and marketability of boasting top-ranking counsel among the team, more so if they are a QC. There are the advocacy skills, of course, available on demand and which may even be passed on to others in the firm through training. And overall, there is the expertise in case management and trial preparation, which can commence from the outset rather than half-way through a matter as when independent counsel is briefed.



As Mr Walker explains: ‘Barristers bring a new viewpoint, whatever their background. They are more likely to look at things as an advocate, from that first letter in an action that can come back to haunt you if it comes to trial, to the confidence in dealing with clients and good case management. Case management is an ideal example where understanding the process is just as important as being good with words.’



Murray Rosen outlines the benefits to the client: the accessibility to counsel and speed of service that comes with an integrated service; costs can be significantly lower because clients are charged an hourly rate instead of a brief fee; and greater transparency: ‘Everything we do is very visible to other members of the firm,’ he says. ‘It’s not like at the bar where you can be sitting with a mate chewing over a case for unlimited time. We’re very accountable.’



The Herbert Smith advocacy unit also provides clients with freedom of choice. If an advocate is required, a client can select from in-house counsel, one of the firm’s 57 solicitor-advocates, or an independent barrister from external chambers. Mr Rosen refers to this as ‘the Rolls Royce of services’.



Of course, shifting between the two arms of the profession can be a cultural shock. Mr Gammie describes the working environment as ‘like chalk and cheese’, highlighting in particular the lack of interface with clients at the bar, but at the same time, ‘far more freedom to organise your day than at a large firm of solicitors’.



Mr Rosen admits that working for a huge business organisation did take a bit of getting used to, especially the mammoth support network. ‘I used to ask my secretary to do things for me and she’d have to tactfully explain that she’d already done them. At the bar it was a case of persuading someone to do something for you,’ he says.



Part of the huge network at Herbert Smith is the largest team of solicitor-advocates in the country. Should the trend for in-house barristers continue, what does the future hold for them and higher rights solicitors everywhere? Mr Walker is adamant that having both types of advocate working shoulder to shoulder is hugely beneficial, and bringing barristers in-house even encourages more solicitors to undertake their higher courts qualification. Herbert Smith’s advocacy unit is a hybrid of both barristers and solicitor-advocates, and indeed, one of the roles of the two QCs is monitoring quality assurance of the firm’s in-house service.



Avtar Bhatoa, chairman of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates, is also unfazed by the increase in barristers moving into law firms, noting that solicitor-advocates are able to undertake other duties that barristers are not, for example, acting as duty solicitors in criminal work. He says that, when measuring the impact on solicitor-advocates, it is important to distinguish between large, commercial firms, criminal and publicly funded firms, and the general high street. ‘The demand for advocacy and the positions available within each segment is very different,’ he says.



It seems whichever way you look at it, transferability between the two careers is one further step towards a united profession. Unless, of course, the bar can emulate sharks, which have managed to remain unchanged as a species for millions of years.



Kate Hanley is a freelance journalist