Unite advocates call

All advocates - including solicitor-advocates - should be regulated by the Bar Council, and all non-advocates, including barristers working in law firms, by the Law Society, the new chairman of the Bar Council has told the Gazette.

Matthias Kelly QC said: 'That is a logical position.

The present position is that the Bar Council regulates all barristers, even those employed in solicitors' offices, in the same way as the Law Society regulates sole practitioner solicitor-advocates.'

Mr Kelly denied the idea was a reaction to the threat of solicitor-advocates.

A recent BDO Stoy Hayward survey of the bar (see [2002] Gazette, 21 November, 6) found that solicitor-advocates were named as barristers' greatest competition.

Mr Kelly said he did not have at present a blueprint for taking the proposal forward.

Law Society President Carolyn Kirby said: 'The Law Society has floated with the Bar Council the possibility of some realignment of existing responsibilities so that the Law Society regulated barristers working in-house, or in solicitors' firms, while the Bar Council regulated freelance solicitor advocates.

But the issue is not under active consideration at present.'

See interview, page 10 (see [2003] Gazette, 9 January)

Jeremy Fleming