Bar Council warns local authorities not to exclude Bar from tenders

The Bar Council chairman has fired off a letter to local authorities warning them not to exclude the Bar from tender exercises for legal services.

In his chairman’s report for June, Nicholas Green QC said he was prompted into action after a group of local authorities recently prepared a tender “for a significant amount of legal work – that the Bar could very easily and well have performed – only for solicitors”.

Green told barristers: “When I write along these lines I generally get a positive response. I am certainly not seeking to be confrontational with potential clients of the Bar, but when they are public authorities there is a serious issue as to whether they can rationally and properly exclude the Bar from tender processes.

In April the Bar Council chairman predicted that the Bar’s new procurement vehicle – known as a ProcureCo – could be “very effective” in relationships between chambers and local authorities and other block contractors. The structure will allow corporate vehicles to be set up as an adjunct or bolt-on to chambers.

At the time Green pointed out that ProcureCos could win contracts from the likes of a local authority that require the services of both barristers and solicitors. The vehicle could then instruct solicitors on its panel.

The launch of the ProcureCo model followed recent rule changes by the Bar Standards Board, which allowed barristers for the first time to work in partnership with each other and with solicitors and expanded the range of activities that barristers are permitted to undertake. A new Code of Conduct was approved by the Legal Services Board in March.