Legal sector plans will benefit banks and big business - Bar Council

Government plans for new business structures for lawyers will chiefly benefit banks and large corporate groups, a seminar heard yesterday.

With the final batch of amendments to the long-delayed Legal Services Regulation Bill expected in the coming weeks, the chairman of the Bar Council, David Nolan, also said Minister for Justice Alan Shatter had declined to meet him formally to discuss the planned overhaul of the sector.

On a proposal to change how barristers and solicitors work by allowing for barrister partnerships, barrister/solicitor partnerships and multidisciplinary practices, Mr Nolan rejected the claim that this would benefit younger barristers. “This will benefit business. It will benefit banks and big corporate entities,” he said.

Mr Nolan said the Bar Council, which represents barristers, was in favour of independent regulation of the profession – another element of the Bill – and agreed with all the Government’s proposals on costs. But he said the Bill was silent on how to regulate the new business structures, which would create a new “third force” in legal services.

While commentators claimed vested interests had succeeded in delaying the Bill, which was first published in 2011, the reality was that barristers had “no influence whatsoever” on the process.

"Even though I have asked and asked, I have yet to meet the Minister on the record to discuss these matters," he said. "I want to talk formally to him about these amendments before they are simply pushed through the joint Oireachtas committee."

A regulatory impact assessment commissioned by the Bar Council concluded barristers would each have to pay €1,500–€2,000 for independent regulation. “We are going to be burdened with a disproportionate part of the cost of this new regulatory structure”, he said.

Mr Nolan was speaking at a seminar, hosted by the Bar Council, on the effects of recent legal sector reforms in England and Wales.