The 1990s

THE 1990s

The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 abolished the bar’s litigation monopoly. The free-market policies of Thatcher had radically altered many professions, and it was hardly a surprise to find that the legal profession was reformed too. Harold Wilson had asked Sir Henry Benson to review the provision of legal services in the 1960s but his report, ultimately published in 1979, had not proposed significant reform. In the 1980s solicitors increasingly pressed for rights of audience and the Marre Committee was split on the question, with all the solicitor members voting in favour and all the barrister members against. So long as Lord Hailsham was Lord Chancellor there was unlikely to be change, but he was retired after the 1987 election and his successor Lord Mackay106 had different ideas. In the longer term the bar did itself few favours by opposing any change. Chambers’ strength has always been founded on the abilities of its members and not its monopoly rights. The bar went further in refusing to admit solicitors to the Inns of Court, which provoked resentment. The professions have rarely been enthusiastic about reform: in the same way that the doctors on the BMA opposed the creation of the NHS in 1947, the Bar Council had opposed the 1898 statute which permitted a defendant in a criminal case to give evidence in his own defence for the first time. Under the 1990 changes, solicitors lost their conveyancing monopoly but were given rights of audience and entitled to apply for high judicial office for the first time.

Once again, chambers was getting too big for its premises. It was getting to the stage where there were a number of small annexes, some of which were not satisfactory for conferences. 11 Essex Street was retained, notwithstanding occasional problems. Charles Hollander and Richard Lord had been sharing the basement room there and complained of sewerage smells after heavy rain. The junior clerks had inspected on several occasions and had been unable to smell anything and claimed this was a figment of the imagination. The basement inhabitants were vindicated when after one occasion of particularly heavy rain the sewer

106 Lord Havers was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1987 but had to retire through ill health three months later.