With legal aid rates squeezed and the ‘threat’ of increased competition from the CPS and solicitor higher court advocates, the bar ought to be looking keenly at survival strategies.

It is surprising, therefore, that the bar has been so slow either to seize the opportunities presented by the Legal Services Act, or perhaps even to recognise them.

The Bar Standards Board, after much pressing from the Gazette, revealed it will not be making a final decision until October on the rule changes necessary to enable barristers to join legal disciplinary practices. Why not? By then solicitors will have been in a position to benefit from the provisions in the act for six months. Over 60 firms have already chosen to operate as LDPs.

Desmond Browne QC, chairman of the bar, gave an impassioned speech on the future of the publicly funded bar at Westminster last week, during which he criticised the unfairness of the general practice used by the Legal Services Commission in contracting with solicitors, not barristers.

The act provides the opportunity for barristers and solicitors to be in business together. They could provide advocacy services jointly, rather than in competition, and would both be involved in any contractual relationship entered into with the LSC.

So why does the bar appear content with the glacial pace at which its regulator is moving? Is it fear of the unknown, lack of business acumen, or just an unwillingness to move with the times?