Supping with a short spoon

While some barristers view solicitor-advocates with deep suspicion, Patrick Walker looks forward to an acceptance of a beneficial co-operation

Earlier this month, a meeting hosted by City solicitors and attended by employed and self-employed barristers demonstrated a refreshing desire for close co-operation between different sections of the legal profession.

It is no secret that some members of the bar have long viewed solicitor-advocates with deep suspicion.

The feeling has rarely been reciprocated, and solicitors committed to advocacy and specialist advice have often included employed barristers in their ranks.

Those barristers rapidly found themselves outside the umbrella of the Law Society, but largely neglected by the Bar Council.

The City Firms Bar Group is just one of the steps initiated by the Bar Council to put things right.

It provides a forum for employed barristers working within City firms to meet each other, keep in touch with the Bar Council and the inns, and to debate current issues affecting the legal profession.

The group's meeting was hosted by City law firm Lovells and the debate was 'One Bar: How can the employed bar and the self-employed bar prosper together.' Speakers included the treasury solicitor and the leader of the South-Eastern Circuit, which has recently admitted the employed bar to its membership.

Both speakers demonstrated an inspiring clarity of vision.

This vision heralds a better service for the client and increased prosperity for solicitors and barristers alike.

Additional support was shown by other guests who included Michael Brindle QC, the Chairman of the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR) - another organisation which has opened its doors to employed barristers - and Sir Paul Kennedy, the treasurer of Gray's Inn.

City solicitors' firms and other institutions which employ barristers can only be encouraged by the knowledge that the inns are starting to - and in some cases already substantially do - provide not only unrivalled training, but valuable advice and support.

In the early days following the Access to Justice Act 1999 barristers working for solicitors were encouraged to re-qualify as solicitors, and the lure of partnership means that some will continue to do so.

But for others there is a new pride, a new sense of belonging to the bar and contributing to the legal profession as a whole.

Given the healthy degree of competition between the professions, who will be the winner in all of this? It was not difficult to see at the meeting that the answer is: everyone.

Few self-employed barristers could not benefit from a sympathetic fellow member of the bar who understands the client and may be responsible for sending out instructions.

At the same time, the instructing firm is less likely to be taken for granted by chambers, and will enjoy a greater understanding of the advocates who are available.

The client will benefit from a flexible service borne out of close co-operation, and will always have a choice whether to use in-house advocates or the self-employed bar.

It is not all good news.

There are some who would like to return to the days when social contact between solicitors and barristers was frowned upon, and employed barristers were seen as second-class citizens.

While the South-Eastern Circuit and COMBAR, among others, lead the way forward, other institutions aim to cause division even within their own profession.

However, I am confident that those dragging their heels against reform which is in the interest of the public and both professions will eventually find themselves isolated and outvoted.

There is a will to change and support at all levels.

Having worked in chambers and for a solicitors' firm, I understand that wariness between the professions will not evaporate overnight, particularly when some are pressing (wrongly in my view) for fusion.

But there are real signs that at last we can all sit down together, and most are willing to sup with a short spoon.

Patrick Walker is director for advocacy at City-based Hammond Suddards Edge, and chairman of the City Firms Bar Group