How we help law firms find barristers

Law firms rarely have a barrister problem in the abstract. They have a Thursday problem: a hearing listed at short notice, a client waiting on an advice, a specialist point that nobody in the department has run before, and a set of chambers that has not returned the call. Clerk&Counsel exists to close that gap. We help solicitors find, brief and instruct counsel across England and Wales, quickly and on terms agreed in writing before the work starts.

One brief, one clerk, cross-set reach

Instructing counsel traditionally means ringing round several sets, waiting for availability, and hoping the recommendation you get is led by fit rather than by which junior needs the work. Our model is different. You send one brief to one clerk, and we search across our panel of barristers and, where needed, our wider network of chambers and sole practitioners. Because we are not tied to a single set, the shortlist we come back with is based on practice area, level of call, hearing experience, court and cost.

For most instructions we come back the same working day with two or three names, availability, and a fee quote. For urgent listings, we work to the timescale the court has given you.

What solicitors instruct us for

Firms use us across the full range of contentious and advisory work:

• Advocacy at interim and final hearings, including case management hearings, applications, trials and appeals
• Written advice on merits, quantum, limitation and prospects
• Drafting statements of case, defences, witness statements and skeleton arguments
• Conferences with clients and experts, in person or remotely
• Specialist input on discrete points of law where the department needs a second opinion

Practice areas covered include commercial litigation, insolvency, employment, family and finance, crime and regulatory work, immigration, property and landlord and tenant, contentious probate and trust disputes, tax disputes, planning, and personal and professional discipline. Where a matter needs mediation or arbitration rather than a hearing, we can also introduce accredited mediators and arbitrators from our mediation panel.

Cover at short notice

A large share of the work we place for law firms is cover. Counsel returns a brief, a listing moves, or a hearing lands in a diary that is already full. We keep availability data on the panel rather than relying on memory, so when you call about a hearing next week in Leeds or a directions hearing in the Business and Property Courts, we can tell you quickly who is genuinely free rather than who might be.

That includes junior counsel for shorter hearings where the fee needs to be proportionate, and senior practitioners where the matter justifies it.

Fees agreed before the work starts

Fee uncertainty is one of the main reasons firms hesitate before instructing. We quote in writing before a brief is accepted: a fixed fee for a defined piece of work such as an advice, a pleading or a day in court, or an hourly rate where the scope is genuinely open. Brief fees, refreshers and conference fees are set out separately so you can pass a clear figure to your client and to your costs budget.

Where the lay client is funding privately, that clarity often decides whether the matter proceeds at all. Where you are working to a costs budget or a fixed recoverable costs regime, it lets you check the counsel spend against the phase before you commit.

How the process works

1. Send us the papers, or a short summary if the papers are not ready. A hearing date, the court, the issues and the value are usually enough to start.
2. We confirm receipt and identify counsel with the right experience and availability.
3. You receive a shortlist with year of call, relevant experience and a written fee quote.
4. You confirm, and we deal with the instruction, the diary, and the practical arrangements.
5. Counsel liaises with you directly on the substance of the case, with the clerk handling everything administrative.

You keep the client relationship and conduct of the file throughout. We do not take the client from you, and we do not act for your client in any capacity beyond the instruction you give us.

Standard terms, indemnity and panel arrangements

All counsel on our panel hold a current practising certificate from the Bar Standards Board and professional indemnity cover through BMIF. We can supply certificates, standard terms of instruction and CVs for firms that need them for internal approval, panel applications or preferred supplier lists. If your firm operates a standardised counsel instruction schedule, we can sit on it.

Working with smaller and mid sized firms

Larger firms usually have relationships with two or three sets. Smaller and mid sized practices often do not, and the cost of building them is real. That is where a clerking service earns its place. You get access to counsel across many practice areas without maintaining relationships with every set, and without the risk of instructing someone you have never used because they happened to answer the phone.

We also work with firms whose caseload has grown faster than their advocacy capacity, and with departments that want to keep a matter in house but need counsel for the hearing itself.

Where direct access fits

Some enquiries that reach us are suitable for direct access and never involve a solicitor. Others plainly need a solicitor to conduct litigation, gather evidence and handle disclosure. When an enquiry needs a firm, we refer it out, and we are always interested in hearing from practices that want to receive that work. Our lead generation service for solicitors sets out how that side works.

Getting counsel on your next matter

If you have a hearing to cover, an advice to commission or a matter that needs a specialist you have not used before, send us the outline. There is no cost to ask, and no obligation if the fee or the fit is not right.

Read more on our for solicitors page, or send us a brief and a clerk will come back to you the same working day.