Red Bar Law: 'We pay barristers £40 per hour'

Red Bar Law, the ninth ABS to be licensed by the SRA, has revealed that it is paying barristers on secondment as little as £40 per hour.

A two member LLP which specialises in getting work done by barristers at cut price rates, the firm was licensed as an ABS this time last year.

Head of finance and administration Hatti Suvari said at the time that the firm could obtain barristers' opinions for as little as £75 per hour because of the strength of its relationships with chambers.

Speaking to Solicitors Journal today, Suvari said the firm had secured a deal with a big corporate client which had saved it 78 per cent of what it might have spent at a different law firm.

She said that the reason Red Bar Law could get barristers to work for as little as £40 per hour was because they were on secondment and paid at the end of every week, giving them "fantastic cash flow".

She explained that the barristers involved were not just the most junior, but a mixed team including barristers from two to 18 years' call, but stressed that if clients wanted to arrange barristers for just two hours, it would not be at that rate.

Red Bar Law's turnover had increased well beyond expectations to £200,000 in its first year of operation, she said, with a profit margin of 70 per cent.

"Workload is never a problem. We work until 10 or 11 o'clock most evenings of the week."

Suvari said securing good deals with barristers depended on the relationships the firm had built up with clerks, barristers and QCs.

"We are absolutely not afraid of Stobarts or anyone else," Suvari said. "The relationship is what gets you the deal and that does not mean big is beautiful.

"When clients spend eye-wateringly large amounts of money, they want you to go the extra mile.

"People buy people, and the market we're working in has bought us."