The Competition Authority has warned that fundamental reform of the legal profession is impossible under the current self-regulation regime which it says gives priority to the interests of the legal establishment over consumers.
In December the watchdog issued its final report on the profession which highlighted anticompetitive practices.
It said today that while the Bar Council and the Law Society had undertaken some reforms highlighted in the report, the most important recommendations have yet to be taken on board.
The Authority has recommended that the Bar Council's self-imposed rule that barristers must be self-employed should be abolished, and a new profession of conveyancers should be introduced to compete with solicitors.
Both measures are fiercely resisted by the Irish legal profession, it said.
Speaking at a conference today Chairman Bill Prasifka said: 'This bias towards the status quo, which favours those already in the profession, illustrates how self-regulation of the legal profession is not in the public interest'.
He said the Bar Council should embrace greater flexibility and seek to ensure that ethical rules are observed by a variety of business forms.
'In this way, both competitiveness and justice will be safeguarded, to the benefit of clients, the profession and society,' he said.
Declan Purcell, Director of the Advocacy Division, warned it is time for the Bar Council, the Law Society and King's Inns, to face the fact that important changes are inevitable to the way the profession is regulated.
