Report to recommend radical changes to legal profession

The Competition Authority is expected to recommend radical changes to the legal profession in a report due to be published later today.

The authority has been investigating restrictive practices in the sector and is expected to make a number of recommendations to make the profession more accessible.

Its report is expected to deal, in particular, with the monopoly on the training of solicitors and barristers held by the Law Society and Kings Inns.

It is also expected to criticise the situation whereby a member of the public can only hire a barrister through a solicitor.

The report may also recommend changes to how the legal profession is regulated, including the establishment of a new Law Council.