No bar to success

First, a disclaimer: what follows is not a rallying cry for a fused legal profession.

Still, it is worth positively noting that this week a barrister has for the first time completed a full 12-month pupillage at a solicitors' firm.No sooner had Hammond Suddards Edge - a trailblazer for in-house advocacy - produced one qualified barrister than it announced it was taking on a paralegal to begin another pupillage.Law firm advocacy departments - staffed by solicitor-advocates, employed barristers or both - will be gradually more successful and influential.Successive Bar Council chairmen continue to argue that there will always be a need for an independent bar, especially to service the needs of the clients of smaller law firms.

And the bar is not going to disappear overnight; nor should it.Advocacy is a rare skill, requiring constant use, honing and fine-tuning.

But what the Hammonds experiment and other law firm in-house advocacy departments are showing is that solicitors' practices are conducive to providing that training and ultimately that service to those clients who are looking for a one-stop shop.Distinctions are being blurred.

The head of advocacy at Hammonds is a barrister and more barristers are cropping up in our Moving On page as they switch to the solicitor side of the fence.

Fusion may or may not come.

But meanwhile, good luck to Hammonds' homegrown talent.