BSB to regulate ABS and LDPs

updated on 06 May 2011

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has decided to regulate advocacy-focused alternative business structures (ABS), legal disciplinary practices (LDPs) and barrister-only entities. It will not seek to regulate multi-disciplinary practices.

The BSB has decided, among other things, that the regulated entities:

  • will be able to conduct litigation - something previously reserved for solicitors;
  • will not be entitled to hold client money; and
  • will be permitted to provide the same services as those currently provided by the self-employed Bar.

The chair of the Bar Standards Board, Baroness Deech, said: "We intend to target our regulation on advocacy-focused entities, taking a risk-based and proportionate approach. We hope that this decision will allow barristers the freedom to react to changes in the legal market and permit them to devise new ways of working in order to remain competitive and better serve the public."

The BSB hopes it will be in a position to regulate such entities from mid-2013, subject to approval by the Ministry of Justice.