Features

Carl Teper mourns the loss of Rosie Samwell-Smith, Principal Lecturer and Director of the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law.  

Rosie Samwell-Smith (Mrs Rosie Keane), who died in October 2010, was formerly Principal Lecturer and Director of the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law (“ICSL”), which is now The City Law School. 

The proposed changes to legal aid funding will inhibit access to the  Family Justice System for the most vulnerable members of society –  the very people the reforms are dedicated to protect, believes Ian Bugg 

On 15 November 2010, the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”) published its Green Paper “Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales” and, with it, the Government has introduced possibly the most profound changes to the Family Justice System since the introduction of the Legal Aid Scheme in 1949. 

Solicitor General Edward Garnier QC MP discusses the role of the Law Officers in referring a sentence which is considered to be unduly lenient to the Court of Appeal 

The Law Officers (the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, and I) have a wide variety of powers, from assisting charities to prosecuting the media for contempt, but none is more high profile than the power under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to refer a case to the Court of Appeal where the sentence is considered to be unduly lenient. 

The Conference proceedings were described as the showcase of our branch of the profession, reports David Wurtzel  

Opening Keynote and Plenary 

Opening the 25th annual Bar conference the Conference Chairwoman, Kim Hollis QC called the proceedings “the showcase of our branch of the profession”. She then laid down her challenge: “My objective is that by the time you leave, each of you is thinking laterally about your future.” Having asserted that there are things such as access to justice on which we will not compromise (core values), she held out the prospect that there was a huge global marketplace out there (opportunity). 

Counsel put the following questions to the inaugural Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.  

Your career has been unusual in that you have combined being a professor of law at UCL with work as a university administrator (Dean of Law and Vice Provost of UCL), with practice at the Bar (at Blackstone Chambers) and membership of various public bodies. Which of these activities is most relevant to your work for the new Centre? 

As the Coalition Government begins its bonfire of the quangos, the judicial office of Chief Coroner can be found among the ashes, says John Cooper QC 

As the Coalition Government begins to burn the quangos, among the ashes can be found the office of Chief Coroner. Never can a judicial office have been so short lived. Strangled at birth would be exaggerating its longevity as the post was only just about to be filled. Although “under review”, most commentators now believe that the Chief Coroner will be abolished – if you can abolish something that has not yet happened. 

Lord Bingham of Cornhill, who died in September 2010, possessed intellectual qualities of a rare kind, writes Lord Justice Sedley 

No reader of Counsel needs to be reminded of the remarkable career trajectory of Tom Bingham, from Queen’s Bench judge and Lord Justice of Appeal through the offices of Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice to the (anomalously inferior) post of Senior Law Lord. What may have been forgotten is that the last of these posts was created for him by Derry Irvine. 

What are the advocate’s emotional drivers when conducting a cross-examination, wonders Professor Penny Cooper. The ability to continually assess the witness’s demeanour and adjust one’s questioning is crucial, she concludes.  

In 1905 in The Art of Cross-examination, Francis Wellman wrote “It requires the greatest ingenuity; a habit of logical thought; clearness of perception in general; infinite patience and self-control; power to read men’s minds intuitively, to judge of their character by their faces, to appreciate their motives; ability to act with force and precision; a masterful knowledge of the subject-matter itself; an extreme caution; and, above all, the instinct to discover the weak point in the witness under cross-examination.” 

Position: Barrister
Chambers: 3-4 South Square 

You’ve worked on all the leading cross-border insolvency cases. Which ones have engaged you the most?

I really enjoy legally and factually difficult cases and I’m as happy to work for a large client as for a smaller client. Recent cases of particular interest include Stanford (the first case on the Cross Border Insolvency Regulation) for the US receiver against the Antiguan liquidators. The interaction between the two sets of office holders caused a lot of difficulty. 

Siobhan Grey discusses the Tate Modern and Gray’s Inn symposium on voyeurism, privacy, censorship and surveillance 

The curtain has now fallen on “Exposed” the Tate Modern’s provocative photographic exhibition. It skilfully captured the political and cultural zeitgeist through an exploration of the themes of voyeurism, privacy and surveillance and raised important ethical questions about the taking of illicit or covert photographs.