Features

Jonathan Fisher QC shares his experiences after a year of practising through a BSB authorised entity and the tensions between maintaining relationships with professional referrers whilst encouraging direct access  

It is a little over 12 months since I started to practise through a Bar Standards Board (BSB) authorised entity, which has enabled me to embrace the modernity of legal practice whilst maintaining the heritage of a barrister’s chambers.  

As the new year beckons, Mark Hatcher takes a timely look back over 2017 for clues as to what might happen in the village of Westminster over the coming year  

Findings from a survey of the LGBT+ Bar make for hard reading, say Steven Vaughan and Marc Mason, who outline what we know and what needs to be done
 

Acutely aware of the economic realities facing the profession, Andrew Walker QC, Chair of the Bar for 2018, talks to Mary Cowe about his plans to lead and develop the Bar during his term of office  

Drawn to the commercial Bar after a youthful flirtation with economics, Andrew Walker QC is a Chair who understands that to some extent you do have to look at life at the Bar through a business lens, whatever your practice area. 

There must be zero tolerance on sexual harassment at the Bar, writes Andrew Langdon QC  

Sexual harassment must not be tolerated at the Bar, or in any other walk of life. 

Anthony Philpott tests legal professional privilege principles against recent case law as in-house lawyers become closer to business operations  

In Ernest Hemmingway’s novel ‘To Have and Have Not’ the character of Harry Morgan captures the independence of the ‘man of action’ and the adversity he faces.  

Angus McCullough QC considers the role of judicial review as the EU Withdrawal Bill is enacted, and after Brexit day has dawned  

A flash-back to 1980: the first series of the TV sitcom, Yes Minister  and a discussion between a Permanent Secretary (Sir Humphrey Appleby) and his Minister (the Rt Hon Jim Hacker MP): 

#MeToo has been a powerful force for good but in the court of social media, ‘I don’t know’ could be the fairest verdict of all, writes The Secret Barrister  

An old stand-up routine – I forget whose – used to poke fun at those old-style newspaper polls where members of the public were invited to phone a premium rate number and express their view on a contentious issue of the day. 

Immigration barrister Colin Yeo reviews Paddington 2  

Warning: contains spoilers – and information about the plot too 

Sir Desmond de Silva
Publisher: Quartet Books (September 2017)
ISBN-13: 978-0704374423