The Bar Standards Board’s paper on the future of the profession may run to 50 pages, but the prospect of major change at the Bar has girded senior barristers into responding – and they are taking a conservative line, as Alex Aldridge reports The Bar Standards Board’s (BSB’s) consultation paper on the future of England and Wales’ 14,000 barristers is an important document. The 50-page tome might not make holiday reading, but every barrister intending to stay in the profession should read it.

The one-year-old BSB is taking on the mammoth task of consulting barristers on what the future of the profession should be, in the light of the Legal Services Act’s provisions – some of which are expected to come into force next year. The BSB is inviting comment on issues including: alternative business structures (ABSs), which allow barristers to work in the same organisation as other professionals such as surveyors or accountants; legal disciplinary partnerships (LDPs), which allow solicitors and barristers to form partnerships; partnerships among barristers; and the ditching of the cab-rank rule.