City law firms may help to fund the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) under new proposals to pool all client money into a nationwide account.

A joint Bar Council and Law Society committee is debating plans to create a single account into which all firms would be obliged to deposit client money, with a percentage of the interest accrued siphoned off by the Government.

One Crown Office Row's Guy Mansfield QC and Clifford Chance litigation partner Simon Davis will co-chair the committee for the Bar Council and Law Society respectively, with other members including Chancery Bar Association chairman Michael Todd QC as well as representatives from insurers and banks.