Fears of two-tier Bar

A two-tier Bar could be on the horizon owing to the large - and growing - gap between publicly funded and commercial chambers, a survey has warned.Ahead of its annual survey of barristers' income, accountants BDO Stoy Hayward said fresh figures from its first five years of research reveal a continuing drop in the average net earnings of juniors doing more than 50% publicly funded work.For juniors with ten years' call, average income fell 6.8% year on year, from 70,877 in 1999 to 66,034 in 2000.

It could be down to 60,000 this year.By contrast, juniors in commercial chambers saw their incomes increase by more than 14%, from 101,930 in 1999 to 116,634 in 2000.Mark Green, the report's author, said anecdotal evidence meant he would not be surprised if the trend were to continue this year.

If it did, it would indicate the emergence of a two-tiered system, and 'a possible crisis for publicly funded chambers'.He added: 'One has to question what incentives will exist for publicly funded work if this fee disparitycontinues to grow.'The profession's growth is slowing, BDO found, from 5% in 1995 to 2% in 2000, and Mr Green said he expected to see this slow further.There are 10,000 barristers in private practice; at the same time, the average chambers has grown from 21 members in 1995 to 27 last year.VIctoria MacCallum