Organisations you will encounter

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) regulates barristers and specialised legal services in England & Wales. It is responsible for setting standards of conduct for barristers. The BSB’s functions were originally carried out by the Bar Council, until the BSB was created as an independent regulator in 2006.

The Bar Council is the barristers’ representative body. They do not set regulatory frameworks for the Bar, but their core work focuses on lobbying the government and Whitehall on matters of relevance to the present status and future of the Bar.

BSB Entities (also referred to as Alternative Business Structures or ABS’s for short) are not sets of Chambers, but are bodies licensed by the BSB, who are owned and managed by authorised individuals and others. This can include a mix of professionals such as barristers, solicitors and accountants. Their activities are broadly similar to sets of Chambers