Solicitors could finally get the green light to use information barriers - known as Chinese walls - for the first time if the Law Society Council this week approves a draft confidentiality rule for final consultation.

The draft rule - part of the planned new rules and principles of professional conduct - permits firms to act for clients where there is a conflict between the duties of confidentiality and disclosure in defined circumstances and subject to safeguards.

Firms would be allowed to act both where the client for whom relevant confidential information is held consents, and also - if the client cannot be contacted or disclosure cannot be made - where consent is not obtained.

But the draft says Chinese walls should never be used in certain circumstances, such as by sole practitioners, or where the physical structure of the firm is incompatible with Chinese walls.

Compulsory safeguards are suggested: written permission should be obtained from the client affected by the information and an identified 'restricted group' - including all relevant office staff from lawyers to secretaries with access to the confidential information - should be kept away from information relating to the other client.

Other safeguards may also be applicable, including: physical separation of the restricted group in a segregated part of the office; password-protected computer firewalls; a statement from the firm that any breaches will be treated as serious disciplinary offences; and a single partner being given overall responsibility for the Chinese wall.

Andrew Holroyd, the senior partner of Liverpool firm Jackson & Canter and chairman of the Society's standards board, said: 'The board has come to the conclusion that information barriers are appropriate in certain circumstances and with certain safeguards, but these exact circumstances and safeguards have yet to be agreed.'

The consultation - if approved - is set to be the last of the five-year project to rewrite the solicitors' rule book.

The aim is to simplify the new rules and make them less burdensome for the benefit of clients and solicitors alike.

The plan is to have a 'big bang', whereby all the existing rules, codes, principles and guidance contained in The Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors are repealed and replaced in their entirety by the new rules.

It is not likely to happen before the end of 2005.

By Jeremy Fleming