Chambers procurement vehicle could be "very effective" for work with local authorities: Bar Council chief

The Bar Council has unveiled a new procurement vehicle that is designed to give chambers greater flexibility to bid for work, with its chairman predicting the structure could be “very effective” for relationships with local authorities and other block contractors.

The move follows recent rule changes made by the Bar Standards Board, which allowed barristers for the first time to work in partnership with each other and solicitors and expanded the range of activities that barristers are permitted to undertake. The changes are contained in a new Code of Conduct, which was approved by the Legal Services Board earlier this month.

In a letter to members of the Bar, Nicholas Green QC said the new structure – dubbed ProcureCo – would increase the ability of the Bar to respond to the rapidly changing economic and regulatory climate.

The Bar Council chairman said: “A combination of the recession, acute pressures upon legal aid and a general climate of austerity in public finances, potentially radical proposals for the reorganisation of legal aid, changes in the way public and private sector purchasers acquire legal services, and increased competition generally, have created an environment where many sets have indicated that not only do they want greater flexibility but that it is urgently needed.”

The Bar Council chairman emphasised that the model will not always be necessary for a chambers that wishes to contract with a purchaser, such as a local authority.

He said: “For clients and purchasers who continue to instruct on a case-by-case basis, the ProcureCo might simply replicate what the present clerks’ room already does, ie negotiate a fee on behalf of the principal and thereafter wait for the client to instruct the named barrister. As such, a ProcureCo along the proposed lines would not be essential though, even on the basis of limited experience, a number of sets have already set up ProcureCos for work allocated on a case-by-case basis, suggesting that the model may be useful in such circumstances.”

But Green added: “Where a local authority or other block contractor wishes to outsource large volumes of work then, for the Bar to be able to take on the work, a more sophisticated (and therefore necessarily more complex) model is needed. It is at this point that the new model may be very effective.”

The ProcureCo model will allow corporate vehicles to be set up as an adjunct or bolt-on to chambers.

In his letter, Green said the vehicles provided a number of advantages such as an enhanced ability for chambers to market themselves “by creating cohesion and uniformity of approach” to clients.

He added that they would give the Bar the ability to bring together a range of skills so that a comprehensive legal service can be provided to clients, for example where the ProcureCo wins a contract from a block purchaser that requires both barristers and solicitors. The ProcureCo vehicle could then instruct solicitors on its panel. This raises the prospect of the vehicles being used by chambers to compete with law firms for work.

The Bar Council chairman added that chambers are already considering setting up (or have already set up) ProcureCos for local authority work as well as a range of areas such as ADR and mediation, arbitration, international work and City advisory work.

He stressed that a ProcureCo cannot at present supply or provide reserved legal activities itself. Instead it must procure the services of the lawyers to be provided to the clients.