Features

Job title - Silk. Devereux Chambers

Devereux Chambers, a civil and commercial set, specialises in insurance and reinsurance, professional negligence, tax, employment law, telecommunications, finance, energy, sport, education, personal injury, clinical negligence and health and safety law

You have been chosen to advise the Treasury Committee in an investigation surrounding the Libor scandal. What exactly is your role?

I have been advising the Treasury Committee on the existing regulatory framework, and in particular, the civil and criminal enforcement aspects. Also, I have been offering some assistance on the handling of evidence presented to the Committee. I had better not say anymore – it would breach legal privilege! 

This year’s conference will be focusing on the Bar’s need to adapt to its changing environment. Alison Padfield, Bar Conference Chairman, previews the event and its speakers... 

The Bar Conference, which will take place on Saturday, November 10th, is the largest event in the Bar’s calendar and provides an opportunity for all parts of the Bar to come together and discuss current issues of importance to the profession. This year’s theme is The Modern Bar – Accessible, Adaptable and Relevant. We will again be at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London, but with a difference – this year, all of the conference activities take place in the same area, thus dispensing with the need to migrate from one wing of the hotel to the other between sessions. 

BRINGING JUSTICE HOME

Kate Aubrey-Johnson provides an overview of civil mediation today 

In the past year, mediation was attempted in nearly 12,000 small claims and an estimated 8,000 fast and multi track cases with settlement rates of 68-90% (Small Claims Mediation Service Annual Report, HMCTS, 2011/12; CDER Fifth Mediation Audit May 2012). This is in addition to the many potential civil disputes being resolved using community mediation and mediation schemes. Members of the public and businesses, organisations and public bodies who may otherwise turn to the courts to protect and enforce their rights are discovering that mediation can offer an alternative process which is both empowering for clients and reaches creative solutions not achievable through a contested court hearing. 

Privacy and libel law: the clash with press freedom
Paul Tweed
ISBN: 978 1 84766 902 5
May 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury Professional
Price: £19.99

Privacy injunctions and the media: a practice manual
Iain Goldrein QC
ISBN: 9781849462846
April 2012
Publisher: Hart Publishing
Price: £125.00 

2012 brings forth two new books which share a concern with the relationship between individual privacy and the press, a relationship which (to adapt HL Mencken) is broadly akin to that between lamppost and dog. They are Paul Tweed’s Privacy and libel law: the clash with press freedom (Bloomsbury Professional) and Iain Goldrein QC’s Privacy injunctions and the media: a practice manual (Hart).  

The Legal Services Board will not baulk as it strives to drive the legal services market forward and reinforce the regulatory objectives, says LSB chairman, David Edmonds 

Counsel has invited me to reflect on the Legal Services Board’s (LSB’s) first three years, in the context of the Ministry of Justice’s recent triennial review of the LSB and Office for Legal Complaints.  In doing so, I was provoked to think about how the Bar, represented by the Bar Council, has dealt with the post-Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA 2007) landscape. 

Nick Avis outlines the possible benefits and drawbacks to barristers of practising through a limited company 

There has been a lot of discussion around the future of the Bar and the changes that have emanated from the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA 2007). Some aspects of these changes are dependent on the regulation of entities offering certain legal services.  The Bar Standards Board (BSB) recently issued a further consultation document on the subject of entity regulation. The consultation closed on 29 June.  It is understood that the BSB intends to put structures in place so that it can regulate: 

A nightmare in the woods; and time to give the publicly funded legal profession a sporting chance
 
August 13, 2012: “The only athletic sport I ever mastered was backgammon”
Douglas William Jerrold.

Filled with the joy of the Olympics, the hopeful young athletes from all over the world competing for honour and pride, I felt young again. Anthony Joshua, who won Great Britain’s final medal, a gold one, in boxing said he drew inspiration from King Leonidas, of “300 Spartans” fame. Whilst Leonidas lost his life and his entire force, his bravery became a rallying point for Greek success. I may be doing the commentator who was interviewing young Mr Joshua a disservice, but it sounded as though he just thought the boxer was rambling after a heavy match. Those of us who were forced to undergo a classical education knew otherwise.

Matthew Nicklin outlines what BSB regulation could entail for those seeking to form advocacy-focused alternative business structures, legal disciplinary practices and barrister-only entities 

The final stage of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) consultation on entity regulation –New handbook and entity regulation – closed on 28 June 2012. After working its way through the responses, a report will be published by the BSB in due course. 

Job title
Silk, Littleton Chambers

Littleton’s 52 barristers specialise in employment law and commercial litigation with additional expertise in commercial fraud, banking litigation, disciplinary and regulatory law, professional negligence, sports law and mediation.

What do you credit your success to?

Undoubtedly it would be having an extremely supportive family, a husband who understands the demands and pressures of the Bar and hard work. I have found that working with and against other barristers has been invaluable in understanding what works well and what perhaps doesn’t.

David Wurtzel casts the spotlight on a new niche legal disciplinary practice which specialises in private prosecutions for fraud and corporate crime 

Edmonds Marshall McMahon (EMM) has been operating since March 2012 in the niche area of representing clients who wish to bring private prosecutions for fraud, counterfeiting and corporate crime. At the moment they say they are the only such firm – but they do not expect things to remain that way for long. As a legal disciplinary practice (LDP), the directors consist of a solicitor (dual-qualified in Australia), a barrister who spent nine years in the Government Legal Service (GLS), and a barrister who works within the company while continuing his self-employed practice at the Bar. The company has no relationship with his chambers.