Counsel in the room — without your client ever leaving it

“Your client never leaves your room; I join it.”

When a legal question surfaces in one of your meetings — the estate leg of a planning review, the BPR question behind a set of accounts, the settlement an employer needs handled, the shareholders’ agreement in an exit — you have two bad options: refer the client away and risk losing them, or advise past the edge of your own remit. This is a third. You keep the client and bring a barrister into your own meeting. I join by Teams at pre-warned short notice, or in person locally, advise on the legal piece as part of your team, take the defined instruction, and hand the client straight back to you. The ask is not “send me your clients.” It is “add a barrister to your service.”

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How it works — three steps

1 Brief me before the meeting

A short note — who the client is, what has come up, what you want covered. The model promises prepared presence, not on-demand availability, so a day or two’s notice lets me arrive already across the point.

2 I join your meeting as counsel on the team

You stay in the chair. I take the legal question in the room, in plain English, alongside you — the client sees their trusted adviser bringing in a barrister, not being passed to a stranger.

3 The client instructs me for the piece — and comes straight back

I do the defined legal work on a published fixed fee, deliver it, and return the client to you. Your relationship is where it started; the legal need is simply met.

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It fits the meeting you already have

Accountants & IFAs

I join the annual review or planning meeting where the estate, trust or BPR question surfaces. The ICAEW’s place in the BSB Licensed Access scheme means accountant relationships can be structurally direct.

HR consultancies

I join the employer-side meeting where a settlement agreement or a dispute crystallises — advice, negotiation and sign-off by counsel, usually at no cost to the employee.

Corporate finance & exit advisers

I sit in the exit-planning meeting for the shareholders’-agreement and estate leg — cross-option, death and incapacity provisions, and how the owner’s estate actually joins up with the deal.

Wealth managers

I attend trustee and family meetings as the legal seat at the table — the barrister who can advise on the structure and, if it is ever tested, defend it.

No fee changes hands between us

I neither pay nor accept referral fees. That is not an omission — it is the point. Nothing changes hands between us, which is exactly why your client can trust the arrangement: the introduction is made only because it is right for them, not because it is bought. You are free to charge your client for your own time in the meeting; what you never do is take a cut of their legal fee, and they never wonder whether you did.

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The lines we keep clear

The client always knows who their lawyer is

However joined-up the meeting feels, the client is my lay client for the piece — with client-care documentation, a written scope and a fixed fee agreed in advance. Teaming is presentation; it is never a blurring of who is advising whom.

I advise the client — including against the room

My duty is to the client and to the court, not to the introduction. If the right advice cuts against a proposed course — yours or theirs — I will give it. That independence is the strongest trust signal in this arrangement, which is why it is stated openly rather than left implied.

Prepared presence, not a pager

This is a single-counsel practice. What it offers is diary-managed, pre-warned presence — brief me before the meeting and I will be there and ready. It is not an on-demand guarantee, and it is deliberately never sold as one.

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Brief me before the meeting

A one-page note is all it takes. Email info@barraj.co.uk before your meeting with:

—Who the client is, and your role for them
—What has come up — the legal question in one or two lines
—When the meeting is, and whether it is Teams or in person
—What you would like the client to leave the room with

The menu you can quote from in the room

Every figure is a single fixed fee for the whole piece of work — not an open meter — so you can name a price to your client in the meeting with confidence. A selection; the full list is on the pricing page.

Opinion of Counsel — written, signed view£1,750

Settlement agreement — usually employer-paid£1,750

Business Owner Estate Plan£6,000

Bespoke commercial contractfrom £3,000

The Family Estate Plan£4,250

The Legal MOT — annual health check£1,500

See the full price list →

Let’s set up an introduction

Book a professional introduction call.

A short, no-obligation call to talk through how counsel-in-the-room would work for your clients — the kinds of meeting it fits, and the lines we keep clear. Barrister to adviser, not a sales call.

Book a professional introduction call →

info@barraj.co.uk · 029 2264 4149

This page is for professional advisers and is general information, not advice on any particular client’s circumstances. In every introduction the client is Barraj Legal’s own lay client, with client-care documentation and independent advice. Fees are indicative, plus VAT and any disbursements, and are superseded by the written quote for the matter. Barraj Legal is a trading style of Rhys Johns, a barrister authorised and regulated by the Bar Standards Board and authorised to conduct litigation.

Barraj Legal — a trading style of Rhys Johns, a barrister authorised & regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Sophia House, 28 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ