It's far too easy to ridicule the Bar's attempts at modernisation, but I usually don't let that stop me. So it's personally disappointing that the Bar Council, under Nicholas Green QC, has moved to ditch the cosmetic attempts at flogging Brand Bar in favour of something far more substantive.

The focal point of this was the blueprint Green unveiled in June in a wide-ranging report, The Future of the Bar. Don't let the title put you off – the 85-page report lives up to it in scope and ambition.

The vision Green puts forward is relatively simple. The publicly-funded branch of the Bar is set to contract, alternative business models are needed to complement (but not replace) chambers and barristers must be ready to hugely expand their efforts to advise clients directly.

To go about this, the Bar has created two models: ProcureCo and SupplyCo. The former allows chambers to act as a flexible middleman that can distribute work among barristers and to solicitor firms. The latter, which is awaiting regulatory approval, is a more radical attempt to create a vehicle that would allow chambers to achieve many of the benefits of a law firm without sacrificing the advantages of self-employed status.

There is much to commend in this blueprint, which was designed to address the market failure that threatens to occur at the publicly-funded Bar. The Bar Council hopes that the commercial Bar can also be persuaded to see the opportunities apparent when the Legal Services Act comes into full effect.

Yet, as this week's in depth feature makes clear, there will be considerable challenges before this vision can be realised. For one, it's hard to take seriously the mock horror the Bar still exhibits over anything that could be termed 'fusion'. Will fusion as barristers mean it happens in the coming decades? Probably not, but the lines between the two sides of the profession will further blur – and they should. The Bar is built on world-class advocacy, not the ethical supremacy or unquestioned glory of the chambers model.

Another issue is whether the Bar can bridge the widening gulf between its differing branches. The experience of solicitors in the 1990s does not bode well. That was the point when high street, criminal and commercial firms found that they not only had very little in common but largely didn't like each other's company. The divided state of the Law Society back then contributed to this, which unquestionably damaged the profession. It will be up to the Bar Council to do a lot better.

It will also be tough to overcome the complacency displayed by sections of the commercial Bar, which at times seems not to realise the huge consequences it will face if the publicly-funded side of the profession implodes. But Green and his colleagues have made a very credible attempt to grapple with such major challenges.

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