Wanted: chief to regulate standards at the bar

The Bar Council is preparing for the implementation of Sir David Clementi’s review of the regulation of the legal profession by establishing a Bar Standards Board (BSB).

The board will be responsible for regulating the bar "in the public interest" and the Bar Council has today (Monday 8 August) begun the search for members of the board.

Either the chair or the vice-chair of the BSB will be a lay person, with the other post being taken by a barrister.

Four committees – rules, qualifications, monitoring and conduct – will support the BSB, with members also being a mix of barristers and lay people.

David Hobart, the chief executive of the Bar Council, said that the BSB will be the centerpiece of the bar’s future as a frontline legal regulator. It will begin work in January 2006.