ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the evolution of the central institutions of the bar and the means by which standards of professional etiquette were imposed on its members. It examines the traditional system, and traces the forces that conspired to undermine its authority and the attempts both in Parliament and within the bar itself to reorganise the profession. This was a period when the demands of men infused with utilitarian principles transformed the face of professional England. Yet the bar, with one of the most archaic of all governing organisations, the inns of court, was the only major profession to emerge virtually unaltered by the prevailing social forces. During the nineteenth century the gap between the governors of the inns and the governed widened as a consequence of changes in the structure of the bar. The most important and historically the most controversial of the bar’s restrictive practices were the two-counsel rule and the special retainer.
