HOW TO USE A BARRISTER - FOR IN-HOUSE LAWYERS
““The principle is simple – by directly briefing a barrister you get timely, cost-effective, expert advice that can be used by the organisation to understand a litigation risk, develop a strategy or fill an expertise gap in the in-house team’s advice.”
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In-house lawyers often have one or even a panel of external law firms engaged to assist with legal matters as they arise. So why should an in-house lawyer use a barrister?
- Barristers are specialists - Barristers are specialist litigators. They have extensive advocacy and dispute resolution experience. That means they can assist your organisation efficiently and effectively with all aspects of the dispute resolution process from initial advisory work through to appearing at trial.
- Barristers are cost-effective – Briefing a barrister can help you manage your legal budget. Barristers have lower overheads than law firms and as a result usually have lower charge-out rates than solicitors of equivalent experience. They are also experts in their fields of practice, so are often able to provide advice with less ‘learning on the job’ than occurs in law firms.
- Barristers can be briefed directly – Barristers can now be briefed directly and this means, from a practical perspective, in-house counsel can deal with barristers directly. This is efficient and cost effective. If an instructing solicitor is ultimately required because a matter progresses to court, the cost will generally be minimal and the in-house counsel’s day-to-day contact can remain with the barrister.
- Barristers can assist with a variety of work – Traditionally, a barrister is often thought of simply as a specialist advocate brought in at latter stages of a dispute to appear in Court. Barristers still fill that role effectively. However barristers are also able to provide a variety of legal services to in-house counsel at earlier stages of proceedings and on non-contentious matters. For example:
- a barrister can provide practical advice (informed by their actual experience) about process and strategy involved in and likely outcomes of different litigation strategies.
- They can also provide legal advice on issues arising in relation to a particular business.
I am happy to have a preliminary chat with you about any matter (at no cost) and can advise you whether I can help, or if not, I will be able to recommend someone who can.