New chambers challenges Faculty Services

Two advocates are inviting Scotland’s 470 practising counsel to join their new breakaway chambers.

John Campbell QC and John Carruthers have launched Oracle Chambers in an unusual move to set up an independent chambers in Scotland, because they are unhappy with what they see as the Faculty of Advocates’ failure to modernise. They say their new venture comes about in response to demand for a leaner, better-focused business management structure for advocates.

Practising advocates normally operate through Faculty Services Ltd, a service company set up in the 1970s to pool resources and economise on the provision of clerks, secretarial backup and fee collection for advocates. Mr Carruthers is critical of the fact that it now has 88 employees to support around 470 practising advicates.

He said: “We have become concerned at what we perceive as reluctance to innovate and market advocates’ services properly.” The established structure, he continued, was not efficient and so he and Mr Campbell had decided to take matters into their own hands and establish a different way of working.

English model

The new chambers will not commence until 1 May 2007 due to contractual arrangements with Faculty Services Ltd. It will employ a clerk and business manager to run the business and provide marketing support. It is intended to run on a more English chambers model. “The English barrister market is fiercely competitive and innovative and we hope to draw on their experience”, said Mr Carruthers. “In general people will instruct us through our clerk, although this arrangement seems to be breaking down gradually.

“For example I usually get instructions directly from solicitors, who normally want to chat about a case before the papers are out, to get initial feedback and check your availability, timescales and costs. This allows them to get right back to the client and report progress – good client care.”

John Campbell commented: “It is very liberating to be able to take direct control of the business side of one’s own practice in this way, and not necessarily be tied to an institutional way of working, which in today’s world may not always suit either the practitioner or the customer.

“As independent sole practitioners, we are now able to develop and tailor our individual practices and services to meet market needs in a clearly focused, direct manner.”

Liberalisation coming

Both counsel are keen to emphasise that the new organisation should not be seen as undermining the Faculty of Advocates, which they described as “pre-eminent in Scottish public life”. They continue to work within the Faculty’s code of conduct.

Mr Carruthers continued: “We are anxious to position ourselves to take advantage of the likely liberalisation in the provision of legal services in Scotland. We anticipate that the Scottish legal profession as a whole, of which advocates are a key part, may choose to adopt some of the reforms being considered in England and Wales, following the Clementi report and the UK Government’s Legal Services Bill (which does not apply in Scotland).

“The Faculty of Advocates is already considering relaxing its rules to allow a greater range of professional clients direct access to advocates. This provides us with an ideal opportunity to establish Oracle Chambers, which will then be able to respond positively to the opportunities these changes may provide.”

Faculty’s co-operative model

Susan O’Brien QC, the current chairman of Faculty Services Ltd, claimed that the continuing success of the company was demonstrated by the fact that no advocate had to join it, and only a handful had chosen to leave and to set up independent chambers over the past few decades.

“Most advocates recognise the advantage of paying cost price for services, and the economy of scale achieved by so many remaining in the company is passed on to all clients in Scotland, whether they are private clients or legally aided. The co-operative model keeps the overheads down, and therefore the fees down.”

The company, she said, was already planning to introduce some structural changes to allow advocates more say in the way they run their practices.

She added: “The company has no problem with advocates who wish to create their own business environments, and I will watch their venture with interest. Faculty Services is proving itself able and willing to improve and innovate.”

Roy Martin QC, the Dean of Faculty, accepted that as the two advocates had made it clear that they intended to remain as members of Faculty subject to the disciplinary code and to the authority of the Dean, their proposals “do not give rise to any issue related to their continuing membership of the Faculty of Advocates and their duty as advocates to the court”.

(First reported on www.journalonline.co.uk)