//2009 Happenings

Speaking at a joint Bar Council/Bar Association for Commerce, Finance and Industry (BACFI) reception on 7th May, he told an audience from a wide variety of backgrounds:

‘As financial pressures mount, we must work more closely together on matters of mutual interest – particularly if the traffic between the employed and self-employed Bar is set to increase.’ He thanked those many BACFI members who were also loyal consumers of the advocacy and advisory services of the self-employed Bar.

BACFI represents the interests of employed barristers providing legal services in a commercial environment and also "non-practising" barristers – those Bar Council subscribers qualified as barristers who do not practice as such.

Arguing that there was more that united than divided the employed and self-employed Bar, Desmond Browne said that the employed Bar ‘must be treated as equal in every respect with the self-employed’.

And he called for a greater number of barristers to be trained in the private sector, through the increased provision of pupillages in commerce and industry. Rules should be simplified to allow this, he said.

‘Many are the times I have heard it said that the process of approving organisations as Pupillage Training Organisations is too bureaucratic and that commercial bodies prefer to take trainee solicitors, rather than pupil barristers.

‘I hope that the Bar Standards Board, which regulates Pupillage Training Organisations, will look at whether there are unnecessary obstacles as part of its current review of pupillage,’ he said.

BACFI’s members also include self-employed barristers, students, overseas lawyers working in the UK and retired barristers. It was founded in 1965 and since then has helped to promote the interests of employed barristers within the profession. The Association is independent of the Bar Standards Board and the Bar Council, although it works closely with both organisations on matters affecting members.

Speaking at the reception, BACFI Chair, Christiane Valansot, General Counsel to the Investment Management Association, paid tribute to Lord Slynn, the late President of BACFI and said:

‘BACFI and the Bar Council have much to learn from each other. The commercial sector is experiencing unprecedented turbulence, and we can provide coal-face insights to the wider Bar on what is happening in a dramatically changing world.

‘At same time, many BACFI members will be looking to the expert legal counsel and advocacy services of the self-employed Bar to help us all to navigate the choppy waters ahead. ‘Together we are stronger, and better placed to serve the public interest and those of the organisations in which we serve. The now-enduring commitment of successive Bar Chairmen to the mutual respect of both wings of the profession is to be welcomed, and I am proud that the BACFI “brand” and that of employed barristers is now stronger than it has ever been.’

Desmond Browne had earlier told the reception that independence was the hallmark of every barrister, employed or self-employed.

‘Nowhere is independence more important than in employed practice, where pressures exist, which put barristers to no less challenging tests than anything confronted by the self-employed.’

The Bar Council existed to vindicate that independence, he said.