BSB shows it has a plan B

So now they tell us. Until recently any suggestion that the Bar’s rules might be just a tad restrictive were met with howls of protest by the Bar Council. If it wasn’t evoking the imminent prospect of the UK becoming a totalitarian state then it was issuing dire warnings that terrorists might exploit new rules on alternative business structures to take over chambers.

The tone of today’s consultation paper on a complete rewrite of the Bar’s Code of Conduct could not be more different.

In the paper, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) confronts the traditional sacred cows with barely concealed relish. We are told the cherished ‘cab rank’ rule requiring barristers to take on unpalatable clients may infringe barristers’ human rights. We are informed that there is a strong argument that rules keeping barristers at arm's length from their clients may “place barristers at a disadvantage against solicitors” and make them “less able to understand clients’ cases and interests”. And it is suggested that rules banning referral fees hamper barristers’ efforts “to develop business relationships”.

Of course, this is only a consultation paper, so the BSB - currently celebrating its first birthday - does not take sides definitively. But the message coming from the board’s director, Mark Stobbs, and his team is a clear one. The dam has been breached and fundamental change is imminent, whether the Bar likes it or not.

It is time to implement plan ‘b’.

john.malpas@legalweek.com