Features

Dr Steve Connor, the Chief Executive of the National Centre for Domestic Violence, explains why he set up the charity. His work as a McKenzie friend has fired his interest in a career at the Bar 

By the time I begin what I hope will be a practice at the Bar, I will have completed nearly seven years as an advocate. It began in 2002, when I became aware that thousands of people who leave abusive relationships find the door to legal protection closed. I witnessed this first-hand when a friend failed to secure legal assistance for obtaining a civil injunction. This led me to found what is now the National Centre for Domestic Violence (“NCDV”), a specialist charity offering a free emergency injunction service. 

Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Twelfth Night, 2010. 

I have been reading last year’s Diary entries. I think I was in danger of succumbing to depression just before Christmas. Fortunately, it was the effect of too much work. Andrew, my senior clerk, made up for his deficiencies in finding me any decent work after the summer break by cramming half a year’s work into December. 

In April 2009 four regional Administrative Court Centres were opened. David Gardner explains why this was necessary 

The Administrative Court (part of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court) hears all applications for judicial review and also some statutory appeals and applications (including applications for habeas corpus and extradition appeals). It is by way of the judicial review procedure that a person may challenge the act or omission of a public body. There are few better illustrations of the accountability of the State than the existence of the judicial review process. 

Hilary Tilby discusses the dangers of using alcohol and drugs as coping mechanisms for dealing with a stressful practice and highlights the help at hand 

When you are subject to long-term stress, the result is that you feel grim – not sleeping well; unable to think clearly; losing your joie de vivre; losing confidence in your own judgement and abilities etc. Naturally, you want to feel better, so what do you do? If you are, as is likely to be the case, the normal legal personality (unable to delegate, driven, perfectionist, the A type personality) then you look for a quick fix, because, by definition, the legal personality is too busy to wait for anything to change. It must be immediate. And what has an immediate effect? Nicotine, sugar, and more potentially damaging, alcohol and drugs.     

Revelry has played a large role in the entertainment activities of the Inns since medieval times, writes Anthony Arlidge QC.  

The Inns of Court have a long tradition of entertainment. Revelry has played a large part in their activities since medieval times. The word “revel” in fact derives from the latin rebellare – to rebel. In the Middle Ages, it was common at Christmas time for the natural order to be upset – the lowest governed the highest. Thus within the church boy bishops were appointed. Christmas revelry also included gender swapping. The world was literally turned upside down. 

How should the Bar respond to the challenges it faces? David Wurtzel meets the new Chairman of the Bar Council, Nick Green QC, and finds he brings a sense of realism to the task ahead 

Nick Green QC, like most of his predecessors, succeeds to the chairmanship of the Bar in “momentous times”. What he in particular brings to the job is an understanding that the profession has changed as a result of the challenges which we have faced in recent years, that we cannot turn the clock back, but that there is a good deal we can do to maintain a vibrant, self-employed, referral Bar.  

Name: Nick Newman
Position: Senior Clerk
Chambers:  Cloth Fair Chambers 

Mark Pallis, Legal and Historical Consultant to “Garrow’s Law”, on how he has used his legal background to good effect 

The origins for “Garrow’s Law: Tales from the Old Bailey”, shown on BBC One in November 2009, date back to April 2008. Having tried for several months to get some human rights type programmes off the ground (the feedback from channels was “Great and worthwhile idea, but I think I’ll pass on it”), I was asked to come up with ideas for a legal drama based on real people, real events and real cases. The time period I was given was broadly 1600 to 1900. I was drawn to the late 1700s because they were a time of change: the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution, the beginning of the campaigns for the rights of man, to end slavery and to reform Parliament. Legally, it was it was a time of great change too. On the very front lines of this, dealing with the cut and thrust, and dirt and grime of the Old Bailey, I found the barrister William Garrow. There was very little information about his personal life. In his professional life, Garrow fought to give a bigger role for defence counsel in criminal cases. He had an incredible number of credits to his name, but somehow he missed out on his place in history. This seemed crazy given that he was the first person recorded as saying “Every man shall be innocent until proven guilty” in an English court, and because, by virtue of the sheer force of his personality, he practically singlehandedly invented the modern form of harsh and penetrating cross-examination. Coupled with the fact that he had a “somewhat irregular”’ relationship with the wife of an MP I thought I’d struck drama gold. 

21 December 2009: “Humor is reason gone mad” — Groucho Marx. 

I  have always tried to keep this diary cheerful. Who knows, my hard drive may be discovered in a time capsule 100 years hence. Given the problems caused by global warming, it may only be possible to read on rationed electricity when the flooding in one’s house has receded sufficiently. 

The Bar Professional Training Course which replaces the Bar Vocational Course in September 2010 is evolution not revolution, believes Marcus Soanes.  

In September 2010, the Bar Professional Training Course (“BPTC”) replaces the existing Bar Vocational Course (“BVC”). The BVC was designed at the end of the 1980s by the Bar Council fulfilling its statutory obligation to maintain and enhance standards in education for the profession. That course established the pattern for the training that prepares students for pupillage, and placed written and interpersonal skills at its centre. Since that time, the Bar Council, and subsequently the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”), has refined the course requirements and validated several institutions across the country to deliver the BVC. Through its regulatory bodies, the profession has sought to standardise training for the Bar, and has, to a large extent, dictated the course curriculum, its length and the learning facilities for students. This means that institutions offering the programme have had to fulfil their validation requirements and to respond to revisions imposed on them. Over the years, several working parties were established to ensure that the BVC remained fit for purpose. The most significant was that chaired by the then Mr Justice Elias, which instituted changes to the course content and assessment framework from 2002.