Advantages of Merging the Solicitor and Barrister Professions

In my recent blog posts, we have been looking at some of the differences between solicitors and barristers, both in their functions and the work they do. In this blog post, we will be looking at some arguments in favour of merging the two professions into one, with another post to follow looking at some of the arguments against. However, we will start by quickly reviewing the key differences between solicitors and barristers.

Solicitors rarely work in court, instead advising their clients face-to-face on their legal rights and position. Previously, they could only represent clients in the lower courts, but they can now also do so in the higher courts, although it is still uncommon. Solicitors will usually specialise in one particular area, such as family law or property law and just deal with clients in this niche. It is solicitors who draw up legal documents such as wills and contracts, ensuring all the terminology used is correct and the legal requirements have been met.

On the other hand, barristers work almost exclusively in courts representing people but spend very little time actually interacting with their clients. In fact, they may never speak to them at all! Instead, solicitors speak to clients and gather all the details they need, then pass these on to barristers. Barristers will use these details, combined with any background on the case and evidence, to build their case that they will present in court. Barristers work on the cab rank rule, meaning that they must take the first case available, rather than picking and choosing.

Solicitors and barristers also train in different ways. They will both start in the same way, with either a law degree or any other degree and a year of a law conversion course called the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

Solicitors will do some work experience on vacation schemes, then a Legal Practice Course (LPC), followed by a two-year training contract. Alternatively, they can start an apprenticeship straight after their A levels which takes six years. Barristers will start with some mini-pupillages for work experience, followed by a Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), then a pupillage for one year.

Benefits of Merging

One advantage of merging the two professions would be having just one simplified method for training. This means that aspiring lawyers do not have to decide early on which career path they intend to follow, giving them more freedom to find out what sort of work they find interesting and enjoy doing. They can then simply decide to specialise in this, rather than being forced to choose whichever profession best suits this type of work and only being able to do this. If they decide that they want to focus on other work later, this is possible, whereas it is not easy to swap between the solicitor and barrister professions.

Just having one method of training also means that all lawyers will have the same foundation for their skills. As well as this meaning that there is a base standard the public can expect from any lawyer, it also means that they are better placed to advise clients on what they need, whether or not the lawyer specialises in this area. They can use their knowledge to refer the client to a lawyer that does cover this and receive referrals back in return.

Merging the professions will also mean that one person can deal with the whole case, rather than both a solicitor and barrister having to go through it. This saves time for the client, who will only have to have the initial discussion and any follow-up once, with the same person, which will also make it easier to keep track of what has been said. The client can get used to and build rapport with just one person, without needing to worry about who deals with what and who they should take a particular problem to.

Only needing to work with one person should also make it cheaper for the client. While a merged profession would presumably charge more for the extra services offered, it is unlikely this cost will be as high as it is to have both a solicitor and a barrister. Whereas a solicitor and barrister would both have to review the work and discuss it with the client, this only needs doing once if the professions are merged, so the client doesn’t have to pay for it twice.

This should also help to avoid covering the same areas twice, making the process more efficient and less tedious for the client. They can simply explain the position once and get advice from one person, rather than potentially having conflicting ideas from two.

Wrapping Up

I hope that this helps you to evaluate merging the two legal professions. In my next blog post, we will be looking at some of the disadvantages of this, so come back in two weeks for that!

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