‘Change is in the air – everywhere you look around.’ If the Clementi review and the consequent changes needed a theme tune, that would be it.
What has not yet been widely identified is one logical and obvious consequence of the much-debated reforms. This is something that will enable specialist advocates to survive and thrive without having to join solicitors’ firms or partnerships (whether of the multi-disciplinary partnership kind or otherwise), or any of the new prospective corporate owners of legal practices, something that will make this a properly functioning free market – the ability of barristers to receive instructions direct from the lay client and agree with solicitors the rates and conditions applicable to referred work. (Barristers should also be able to sue directly for their fees, whether from lay client or instructing solicitor, since they will not want to hold client monies.)
