Barristers’ regulator, the Bar Standards Board (BSB), has opened its doors to applications from those wishing to set up lawyer-owned and managed businesses (or entities) providing reserved legal activities.
From this week, barristers and other advocates can apply to form companies, become a partnership or set up an LLP without changing regulators. The BSB will begin authorising applications in April.
Joining or forming an entity appeals most strongly to criminal and family barristers, and least strongly to those working in commercial and chancery, and international or EU practice, according to Bar Council and BSB research published last summer (Barristers’ Working Lives, a second biennial study of the Bar). Interest focused most strongly on barrister-only entities.
More than a third of family barristers and more than a quarter of criminal barristers had definite or possible intentions to join or form an entity with other barristers. More than a quarter of criminal barristers and nearly a quarter of family barristers had definite or potential plans to join or form entities with barristers and other lawyers. Some 18% of criminal barristers and 17% of family barristers had definite or potential plans to join or form entities with barristers, other lawyers and lay people.
The BSB also announced that it will apply to the Legal Services Board this year to become a licensing authority for ABSs, which may be owned and managed by non-lawyers.
Oliver Hanmer, director of supervision for the BSB, says: “This is a major chapter in the story of the Bar. Adjusting the way in which it does business is critical to the profession’s posterity. As a regulator, it is our job to do what we can to enable barristers to alter the ways in which they can structure their practice so it better meets clients’ needs.”
