A generation ago there was one bar. Today, there are several. A generation ago, barristers in highly respected sets would appear in a commercial case one week, defend in a murder trial the next and act in a family dispute in the third.
If barristers tried to do the same today, they would attract criticism from their fellows. More significantly, their efforts to conduct such a practice would probably fail. Within a generation, solicitors have grown increasingly specialist and they demand and expect barristers to be the same. Many of the ‘top’ specialist sets only began a generation ago. Specialist sets and specialist barristers have thrived because solicitors have refined their practices.
