Legal Services Board watches over barristers “like naughty children”

Maura McGowan QC, chairman of the Bar Council has criticised the Legal Services Board (LSB) for failing to improve standards while creating more “obstacles” for barristers. Addressing delegates at the Annual Bar Council Conference last week, Maura McGowan QC said: “Despite the quality of training we provide both at the start and throughout barristers’ careers ... we are watched over like naughty children. The advent of the LSB has not driven up standards, it has put more obstacles in the way of those trying to practise well and honestly. We will continue to contribute to the debate on the future of regulation [but] we should not be held to account by an oversight regulator whose stated position is, ‘to look forward to a future when the provision of legal services means more service and less legal’.”