Junior Members Workshare Scheme
The Lincoln’s Inn workshare scheme is a database of junior members that have capacity to undertake paid research or other paid work for senior members of the Inn. It was set up by the Junior Members’ Committee following the reduction in work available for junior members during the Covid-19 pandemic.
If you are a senior member of the Inn and would like assistance in undertaking research or other work such as the compilation of chronologies, location of authorities, or organisation and summaries of papers, you can access an online table of junior members who have availability for such work. Their contact details, areas of practice, online profile, and year of Call are set out in an online table.Junior members can sign up to the scheme by completing this survey. Please note that the information you provide will be added to these publicly accessible spreadsheets below.
If you are a senior member of the profession in need of assistance with your work, you can view a list of those who have signed up to the scheme here:
As a Google Sheets document
As a Microsoft Excel document
You can filter the information using the filter options at the top of each column. Senior members can then get in touch directly with the junior member or their clerk to arrange the work they need completed.
The JMC’s survey of junior members during lockdown in April 2020 found that over 60% of all junior tenants had at least a 50% reduction In (i) their court work, (ii) overall workload and (iii) earnings.
Work under the scheme will usually be governed either under (a) the devilling regime, if between members of the same set of chambers, or (b) under the outsourcing rules as provided for by the BSB. If neither of these rules apply, usual contractual terms should be put in place.
It is envisaged that the majority of work under the workshare scheme will fall under the outsourcing regime.
Devilling is where a barrister in the same chambers undertakes work for another barrister for which he or she is responsible for the client. It is a long-established practice among self-employed barristers. If work falls under this basis, the Bar Council’s professional guidance on devilling should be considered (see downloadable PDF on the right).
Work undertaken by barristers outside the devilling regime (i.e. by barristers from other chambers) would usually fall within the outsourcing regime under Rule C86 of the Code of Conduct. The outsourcing regime does not apply to devilling. Rule C86 applies to any work outsourced that is “critical to the delivery of any legal services”. If work falls under this basis, the Bar Council’s professional guidance on outsourcing should be considered (see downloadable PDF on the right).
For instance, if person A was engaged to do research through the workshare scheme by person B and that research was used to assist person B in advising their client on the law, or in preparing a skeleton argument and that research is so reflected in the final argument, it would be critical to the legal services and fall under the outsourcing regime. Paragraph 6(b) of the guidance suggests that the kind of work which junior members would be asked to carry out for other barristers outside their Chambers may be treated as legal services rather than support services for the purposes of Rule C86.
Under Rule C19 provides that those to whom legal services are being supplied must not be misled as to who will carry out the work and the basis of charging. As is noted in the Bar Council guidance on devilling, if you cannot conscientiously assert that the work will be supervised and/or scrutinised the intention to obtain the assistance should be disclosed to the client. Delegation of minor, preliminary or incidental parts of the work (such as researching a defined point of law for recent developments) does not usually require such disclosure.