Licensed Access

Licensed Access is the new name bringing together the two previous schemes operated by the Bar previously known as “Bardirect” and “Direct Professional Access”.

Licensed Access enables organisations, with appropriate experience and expertise, to use the specialist advice and advocacy services of a barrister direct without the intervention of a solicitor. The scheme operates through a licensing system run by the Access to the Bar Committee of the Bar Council.

Licensed Access recognises that there are significant areas of work in which the traditional two layered legal system (in which the Bar Council insists that only a solicitor can refer work to the Bar) may unnecessarily increase the client’s costs.

Licensed Access allows direct access to the services of a barrister from a far wider range of organisations and individuals than previously permitted. It means that under certain conditions, suitable organisations and individuals (from the business community to the voluntary sector) can have direct access to a barrister.

For further information including the full rules governing barristers accepting work under this scheme, click on the link below;

www.barcouncil.org.uk/guidance/generalandintroductory

Any member of any of the bodies referred to below are deemed to be an authorised licensed access client (including in relation to matters concerning that member’s clients or customers) but

• only in a matter of a kind which falls generally within the professional expertise of the members of the relevant body; and
  
  
• not for the purpose of briefing counsel to appear in or exercise any right of audience before the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, the Privy Council, the Supreme Court, the Crown Court, a County Court or the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Part I - Accountants and taxation advisers

1. The Association of Authorised Public Accountants
2. Association of Taxation Technicians
3. The Chartered Association of Certified Accountants
4. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
5. Institute of Chartered Accountants
6. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland
7. Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland
8. The Chartered Institute of Taxation
9. The Institute of Financial Accountants

Part II - Insolvency practitioners

1. Insolvency Practitioners Association

Part III – Architects, surveyors and town planners

1. The Architects Registration Council of the UK
2. The Architects and Surveyors Institute
3. Association of Consultant Architects
4. The Royal Institute of British Architects
5. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
6. The Royal Town Planning Institute

Part IV - Engineers

1. The Institution of Chemical Engineers
2. The Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors
3. The Institution of Civil Engineers
4. The Institution of Electrical Engineers
5. Institution of Mechanical Engineers
6. The Institution of Structural Engineers

Part V - Valuers

1. The Incorporated Society of valuers & Auctioneers

Part VI - Actuaries

1. The Faculty of Actuaries
2. Institute of Actuaries

Part VII - Chartered secretaries and administrators

1. The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and  Administrators

Part VIII - Insurers

1. The Association of Average adjusters
2. The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters
3. The Chartered Insurance Institute

Part IX – Group Licenses

1. Academy of Experts
2. Association of Building Engineers
3. Association of Law Costs Draftsman
4. Chartered Institute of Building
5. Chartered Institue of Housing
6. Engineering Council (UK)
7. Institute of Financial Services (formerly the Chartered Institute of Bankers)
8. Institute of Legal Executives
9. Institute of Professional Willwriters
10. Society of Financial Advisors
11. Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
12. The Landscape Institute
13. Licensed Access Licensees (separate list available on the Bar Council Web-site)

Additionally, an arbitrator (including for these purposes an adjudicator under the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996) but only when instructing counsel for the purpose of advising on any point of law practice or procedure arising in or connected with an arbitration in which he has been or may be appointed shall be deemed to be an authorised licensed access client.

Applying for a licence

Those seeking a license to enable them to instruct barristers direct must complete an application form and return it to; The General Council of the Bar, 289-293 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7HZ.

If you require help or advice with this process, please contact David Parker in chambers, who will be pleased to assist.