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Any client who thinks a ‘lawyer is a lawyer’ is deluded. So is someone who thinks there are two legal professions. There are dozens.

A criminal advocate has almost nothing in common with an investment funds lawyer, who has nothing in common with an employment lawyer, or a family lawyer, and so on.

Yes I know that the regulators still think the description "solicitor" should reassure clients you can do anything from getting them a non-molestation injunction to floating their business on the stock exchange. But it ain't so.

It makes sense for immigration lawyers (for example) to be free to practise together whether they are nominally solicitors or barristers. Neither solicitors nor barristers are generally trained to do immigration work. So if they happen to be competent this is nothing to do with their professional qualification, and all to do with what they have chosen to do later.