01 Aug 2017
If you have ever read Roald Dahl’s ‘The BFG’ to your children, your mind might recall one of the many brilliant images by Quentin Blake of sleeping unshaven giants, each individually full up and content, whilst the clever brilliant BFG tip toed past. (Bear with me because in about two sentences this metaphor is about to collapse.) The Bar – here as sleeping giants – and the BFG is, well, those who have sought to disintermediate it by sneaking past to head out for the night.
“You see far from having their bellies full, the Bar which makes up about 14% of lawyers, accounts for just 2% of the market.”
You see far from having their bellies full, the Bar (not of children…legal services of course), which makes up about 14% of lawyers, accounts for just 2% of the market. (This analogy is about to be tortured to within an inch of its life.) The Bar – giants – are starting to realise that far from their stomachs being full, it is just about the entire rest of the legal market that is slipping past it to head out in to the night. One or two of them are even stirring, starting to wake, and are looking to their regulator and the remit of the Legal Services Board to hold their regulator’s toes to the fire when it comes to support for innovation. (You can find us here.)
The Bar, historically a referral profession, but then and still now ‘a profession’ cannot ignore the economic realities of the market but nor should it have done in the past. Seven years ago when we here at Absolute Barrister started to realise the effect that direct access could have, many, in many chambers, were entirely unsure as to whether it had any value at all. Recently, the Bar passed a milestone in that half of its self-employed barristers are now direct access qualified. Because when it comes to controlling cost there are only so many years that putting pressure on existing relationships and controls would actually do, well, anything at all.
If you have a structure for legal aid that says you must have a barrister and you must have a solicitor and it must be at ‘this cost’ then all you can argue is whether the cost should go up or down. If your chambers has for ten years done case x at cost x for days y for solicitor z, then don’t be surprised if when they come to instruct you again that’s the price they’d expect to pay ‘else it’s going elsewhere’. This is disintermediation pure and simple.
“The Bar is more than a brand, if it wanted to define itself as a destination for legal expertise there would be few who could compete.”
We can say that because if the Bar had nothing to offer at all, then it simply wouldn’t be needed. Quite the reverse, we some time ago said that whilst the Bar is more than a brand, if it wanted to define itself as a destination for legal expertise there would be few who could compete. (Incidentally it’s nice to see one or two others picking up some of the phrases we used like ‘expert barrister’ and recognising the brand value of the Bar – of which you can read more about here – without limiting it to just a brand: see here for our most read article ‘by some margin’ for the Bar Council.)
It’s not just the economics of sales either, it’s the economics of numbers. In other markets experts are increasing in number whilst at the Bar the numbers are fairly static and junior members are decreasing. Whilst the market isn’t disappearing, there is some ‘base level’, a level perhaps below which those at the Bar might simply say ‘no’ and leave – indeed, numbers are dropping for barrister’s under 5, 10 and 15 years’ call. Although overall numbers haven’t fallen they are not growing and certainly not like others in the legal sector. That again is symptomatic of a market being controlled by other forces.
“It is hardly surprising that the ‘sleeping giants’ of the Bar are starting to stir.’”
With the CMA report into the market appearing to want to encourage unregulated providers (even if as we have suggested they do one day become ‘registered’) and with others like the big-six accountancy and their devolved consulting arm sisters looking at the market that is bigger than the entire UK defence spend, it is hardly surprising that the ‘sleeping giants’ of the Bar are starting to stir.
…or is it the Bar starting to tip-toe past the sleeping legal giants?
(Post Script: A deep apology for such a dreadful use and subsequent torture of a metaphor.)
You can access the latest full issue of ‘Innovating the Bar’, featuring this article and more here.
