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Criminal barristers who agree to work for law firms “for no fee” could be breaching the referral fee ban, the Bar Council has warned. The Bar Council said law firms were “wrong to suggest no fee is available” where counsel was “unassigned”.

The chief executive of what he terms a “bog standard law firm” has described how it secured private equity investment as a “roll-out specialist”. Colum Smith of McMillan Williams revealed that his firm received eight private equity funding offers.

Paul Philip, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), has warned criminal lawyers that they may be the subject of a “thematic review”, as the row between practitioners and their regulator over the legal aid boycott deepened.

Mr Justice Mostyn has delivered some of the strongest judicial criticisms yet of the legal aid cuts and warned that “more are in prospect” under a majority Conservative government. His comments, though largely targeted at family law, came on the eve of today’s strike over pay by criminal law solicitors.

Removing the ban on referral fees in criminal cases could lead to “arrest chasing” by solicitors, the Bar Council has warned, and result in “as much public opprobrium” as ambulance chasing. However, the Bar Council backed third-party accounts for solicitors.