Daily Diary

Chambers braced for canapes crackdown

Posted 13/12/2006 by legalweekblogs.com SU

Thank heavens for the Bar Standards Board (BSB). If it wasn’t for the firm hand of the recently-formed regulator, the Bar might be in all kinds of trouble by now – plummeting levels of work, say, an almost incestuous reliance on white, wealthy Oxbridge graduates or even some kind of education funding crisis. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.

Luckily the BSB has turned its attention to the curse that is free booze and cucumber sandwiches, with the body today (13 December) launching a new consultation “on the [clearly very serious indeed] issue of barristers offering hospitality and entertainment” to professional clients.

“We look forward to receiving a wide range of comment and evidence,” chortled Standards Committee chair Charles Hollander QC in a statement, evidently eager to rifle through the countless complimentary Christmas hampers sent from chambers to law firms in the spirit of festive cheer.

Still, with tough conditions for barristers meaning the stakes are higher than a sirloin skyscraper, the BSB will be keen to avoid some kind of hospitality arms-race.

As The Untouchables’ Jim Malone might have put it - they pull a Swiss roll, you pull a Danish. He sends one of yours to the football, you send one of his to the opera. That’s the City way...

A cunning marketing strategy, yesterday