Transactional lawyers are well used to eyeing the wider business market nervously in an attempt to gauge how their practice will fare. It is, however, rare for a structural change to lead to the permanent drying up of a whole class of work. But this is precisely what has been happening in the field of litigation, thanks to the efforts of the current Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf.
His civil justice reforms have had a profound effect on the conduct of litigation in this country by ensuring that many more cases are settled before reaching trial. It stands to reason, given the thrust of the reforms, that it is the lawyers who specialise in trial work – the barristers – who have been suffering the most. The number of pupillages on offer at the Bar has plummeted and within the commercial Bar work has been gravitating towards an elite of barristers practising out of a smaller number of chambers.
