Chambers

Article: 3rd Bar Council Visit to India Strengthens Links between Indian and English Profession

A large delegation of 20 barristers and chambers’ staff visited Mumbai and Kolkata between 22 and 27 November. This visit took place in the context of the International Committee’s strategic plan objective to raise the profile of the Bar in India over...

Article: Advisory Panel: recruiting 2009 membership

Panel membership will entail being part of a network of individuals (10 approx) with the relevant experience who will share views, perspectives and ideas relating to changing working practices at the Bar, post Legal Services Act. Commitment will be...

Article: Alternative Business Structures

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is working towards making decisions about barristers joining Legal Disciplinary Practices and Alternative Business Structures. As explained in the BSB’s response to the Legal Services Board’s discussion paper ’Wider acces...

Article: Authorisation to practise arrangements

The Bar Standards Board has recently published a consultation paper on proposals for revisions to barristers’ practising arrangements. In particular the paper covers: 1. The introduction of an authorisation to practise regime;2. The regulatory...

Article: Awareness Toolkit training

Equality & DiversityIn response to a growing demand from the Bar for Equality and Diversity Awareness Training, and to the recommendation for such training in the Neuberger Report on Entry to the Bar, the Bar Council Equality and Diversity Committee...

Article: Bar Chairman calls for Bar to modernise

THE Chairman of the Bar, Nicholas Green QC, has called for the Bar to continue to modernise as it enters a new era of legal services provision. Speaking at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Legal and Constitutional Affairs in the...

Article: Bar Council appoints Toby Craig as its first Head of Communications

THE Bar Council, the Approved Regulator for barristers in England and Wales, has appointed Toby Craig as its first Head of Communications.

Article: Bar Council urges caution over Alternative Business Structures

THE Bar Council has published its response to the Legal Services Board’s wide-ranging discussion paper on Alternative Business Structures (ABS). The response from its Working Group on ABS reflects the Bar Council’s support for a pragmatic and...

Article: Bar Council welcomes BSB’s decisions on new practice structures

THE Bar Council has welcomed the decisions taken by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) which will permit members of the Bar to supply legal services within new business structures. The BSB has approved the creation of Legal Disciplinary Practices (LDPs)...

Article: Bar Standards Board to regulate entities

At its most recent Board meeting, the regulator of the Bar in England and Wales took the decision to regulate advocacy-focused Alternative Business Structures, Legal Disciplinary Practices and Barrister Only Entities, collectively referred to as...

Article: Bar working party

A working party of about 100 barristers, clerks and practice managers from the criminal, family, civil, commercial and chancery Bar has been set up to advise sets of chambers on how to contract directly with the LSC.

Article: BSB and Barristers in business

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has confirmed it will regulate advocacy-focused Alternative Business Structures (ABS), Legal Disciplinary Practices (LDPs) and barrister-only entities, but not multi-disciplinary practices.The BSB said entities under its...

Article: BSB approves fundamental changes

The Bar Standards Board has paved the way for fundamental changes in barristers’ working practices by giving approval for barristers to supply legal services through the legal structures known as Legal Disciplinary Practices (LDPs). The BSB has taken...

Article: BSB calls for further research on ABS

The Bar’s regulatory body has said it would be “wrong” for it to permit barristers to enter into Alternative Business Structures (“ABS”) without further research. Responding to the Legal Services Board’s (“LSB”) discussion paper on developing a...

Article: BSB final report: pilot scheme to monitor Chambers

The Bar Standards Board Published its final report on a pilot scheme to monitor Chambers’ compliance with the Code of Conduct. The pilot scheme ran from June until November 2008 and involved a representative sample of 35 sets of Chambers. The sample w...

Article: BSB survey

The Bar Standards Board is to conduct a YouGov survey among barristers, clerks and practice managers on their opinions and expectations regarding the new business structures permitted under the Legal Services Act 2007.  The survey will be emailed by...

Article: Chambers enter the diversity league

Barristers’ chambers have made a respectable debut in the Diversity League Tables. Chambers were included in the annual league table, run by the Black Solicitors Network, for the first time this year, with 23 out of 60 invited sets agreeing to take...

Article: Chambers monitoring pilot

The Bar Standards Board has published the final report on its chambers monitoring pilot scheme. The Board has committed to developing a quality assurance scheme to monitor compliance by chambers with the Code of Conduct. The pilot scheme tested the...

Article: CHINA BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MISSION HAILED A SUCCESS

A Bar Council group of experts in commercial and criminal law visited the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in early November. The first three cities were visited in collaboration with a delegation from the Law Society and...

Article: Clients come first, says Deech

The task of providing “independent quality advice” must take centre stage in any decisions on barristers’ involvement in new legal structures under the Legal Services Act 2007.

Article: INTERNATIONAL RULE OF LAW LECTURE

The Bar Council was delighted to welcome the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, Judge Anthony Gubbay to the Inner Temple on 9th December to speak on, “the progressive erosion of the Rule of Law in Independent Zimbabwe”. Judge Gub...

Article: Legal Services Board - Consultations

The Legal Services Board has a number of consultation papers out for consideration now and there are more to come through the rest of the year. The consultation papers concern various aspects of how the legal profession will be regulated in the...

Article: New BSB Chair and Vice-Chair

The Bar Standards Board has announced, after open competition run by an Appointments Panel, that Baroness Ruth Deech has been appointed as the new Chair of the BSB and that Sir Geoffrey Nice QC will be the Vice-Chair. Baroness Deech has extensive...

Article: New business structures appeal to barristers

Barristers are eyeing up the opportunities presented by the new legal business structures, with 43 per cent interested in setting up shop with solicitors.

Article: Recent Circulars

Subscription renewal letters sent to Self-employed Bar for payment by 1 January 2009 Chambers Block payment invoices sent for payment by 1 January 2009 Reminder letter to Head of Chambers regarding Chambers Return 2008

Article: RECEPTION FOR A DELEGATION FROM THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION

On 3 December the Bar Council’s international committee with the support of Outer Temple Chambers, COMBAR’s Africa sub committee, ChBA and the CBA, welcomed a delegation of Nigerian lawyers who were participating in a week long programme organised by the...

Article: Review group proposes major changes to CPD for Barristers

A review of CPD for barristers, commissioned by the Bar Standards Board and chaired by Derek Wood CBE QC, has recommended major revisions of the system.

Article: Review of CPD

A CPD Working Group, chaired by Derek Wood QC, has been setup to conduct a comprehensive review of the continuing education and professional development of practising barristers (in respect of both new practitioners and established practitioners)....

Article: Survey of profession on new business structures

The Legal Services Act has dramatically reformed the regulatory landscape for barristers, allowing practise in new business structuresalongside other barristers, legal professionals and nonlawyers.

Article: The Bar’s efforts to secure a diverse profession for the longterm reflected in intimate portrait of life at the Bar

A major new documentary has been broadcast on BBC 2. The Barristers was an intimate portrait which details life at the Bar from aspiring barristers through to senior silks. The four-part documentary was the result of four years of collaboration...

Article: VISIT BY THE TIANJIN BAR ASSOCIATION

The China sub-committee of the International Committee was pleased to welcome a delegation of nine office holders from the Tianjin Bar Association to London on 7 December. The Bar Council established a good relationship with the Tianjin Bar during a...