Make no mistake, the Bar is facing tough challenges. It will almost certainly start to shrink for the first time in a generation in the face of the combined threat posed by the Woolf reforms, solicitor-advocates and public funding cuts – even if a sharp economic downturn might temporarily halt this process.
The steady procession of chambers’ dissolutions that have occurred in recent months may make depressing reading. There are, however, signs that the Bar is making a fight of it. And we are not referring to the Bar Council’s over-reaction to the reforms proposed by the Office of Fair Trading.
