*/
Recruitment and retention must be at the heart of the Bar Council’s work as the number of barristers under five years’ Call slides back to the levels of a quarter of a century ago.
In his inaugural speech, Andrew Walker QC, who has succeeded Andrew Langdon QC as Chair of the Bar, warned that the number of junior barristers has fallen significantly in the last ten years. He said: ‘We have now reached the point at which the number up to five years’ Call is back to where it was when I was Called, 26 years ago. We cannot allow this to continue. We need the junior Bar.’
He blamed successive governments for the fall in numbers at the publicly funded bar, highlighting the ‘appalling combination of shrinking fees, plummeting morale, and ever increasing burdens on practitioners’.
Walker called for work to make a career at the junior Bar viable and sustainable, particularly for those doing criminal law. Barristers, he said, need help to ‘find their entrepreneurial side, and to use it to identify new markets, and to secure more work in existing markets’ and to make better use of technology.
The Bar, he said, also needs to examine why measures to increase diversity have failed to make enough of a difference, and to make a more ‘open, inclusive and supportive’ culture.
Recruitment of ‘as diverse a group of the brightest and best new practitioners’ and the retention of ‘as many practitioners as we can’, must be at the centre of the Bar Council’s work, he said, adding that retention was a ‘very personal concern’ because he had seen first hand those with excellent practices leave the self-employed Bar.
Walker criticised the ‘ideology and fixations’ of the Bar’s regulator, which he said had failed to understand the profession’s commitment to its clients and to the court, and had sought to introduce ‘unnecessary regulatory burdens’ such as the now abandoned QASA.
Rather, he wanted ‘wise, mature, sophisticated and effective’ regulation based on a proper understanding of the Bar and a ‘proper dialogue, based on respect, understanding, discussion and persuasion; not diktat, coercion or constricted formality’.
To guard against emerging threats to the Bar’s international reputation, Walker said the Bar Council must work to salvage parts of the EU justice arrangements and help barristers seek new opportunities.
On the domestic front, he said a ‘window of very real opportunity’ was presented by the £1.1bn court reform programme, but the government has forgotten the profession, leading to ‘impractical, unrealistic, and even misguided, ideas’ like the Flexible Operating Hours proposal.
He pledged to continue to argue for court reform that supports the rule of law and for legal aid for domestic abuse victims in family proceedings.
Recruitment and retention must be at the heart of the Bar Council’s work as the number of barristers under five years’ Call slides back to the levels of a quarter of a century ago.
In his inaugural speech, Andrew Walker QC, who has succeeded Andrew Langdon QC as Chair of the Bar, warned that the number of junior barristers has fallen significantly in the last ten years. He said: ‘We have now reached the point at which the number up to five years’ Call is back to where it was when I was Called, 26 years ago. We cannot allow this to continue. We need the junior Bar.’
He blamed successive governments for the fall in numbers at the publicly funded bar, highlighting the ‘appalling combination of shrinking fees, plummeting morale, and ever increasing burdens on practitioners’.
Walker called for work to make a career at the junior Bar viable and sustainable, particularly for those doing criminal law. Barristers, he said, need help to ‘find their entrepreneurial side, and to use it to identify new markets, and to secure more work in existing markets’ and to make better use of technology.
The Bar, he said, also needs to examine why measures to increase diversity have failed to make enough of a difference, and to make a more ‘open, inclusive and supportive’ culture.
Recruitment of ‘as diverse a group of the brightest and best new practitioners’ and the retention of ‘as many practitioners as we can’, must be at the centre of the Bar Council’s work, he said, adding that retention was a ‘very personal concern’ because he had seen first hand those with excellent practices leave the self-employed Bar.
Walker criticised the ‘ideology and fixations’ of the Bar’s regulator, which he said had failed to understand the profession’s commitment to its clients and to the court, and had sought to introduce ‘unnecessary regulatory burdens’ such as the now abandoned QASA.
Rather, he wanted ‘wise, mature, sophisticated and effective’ regulation based on a proper understanding of the Bar and a ‘proper dialogue, based on respect, understanding, discussion and persuasion; not diktat, coercion or constricted formality’.
To guard against emerging threats to the Bar’s international reputation, Walker said the Bar Council must work to salvage parts of the EU justice arrangements and help barristers seek new opportunities.
On the domestic front, he said a ‘window of very real opportunity’ was presented by the £1.1bn court reform programme, but the government has forgotten the profession, leading to ‘impractical, unrealistic, and even misguided, ideas’ like the Flexible Operating Hours proposal.
He pledged to continue to argue for court reform that supports the rule of law and for legal aid for domestic abuse victims in family proceedings.
As we look ahead to Justice Week 2022, the sustainability of the Criminal Bar remains a critical issue for the government to address
Opportunity for female sopranos/contraltos in secondary education, or who have recently finished secondary education but have not yet begun tertiary education. Eligibility includes children of members of the Bar
Fear of the collection and test process is a common factor among clients, especially among vulnerable adults in complex family law cases. Cansford Laboratories shares some tips to help the testing process run as smoothly as possible
Casey Randall explains how complex relationship DNA tests can best be used – and interpreted – by counsel
Casey Randall, Head of DNA at AlphaBiolabs, explores what barristers need to know about DNA testing for immigration, including when a client might wish to submit DNA evidence, and which relationship tests are best for immigration applications
Julian Morgan reminds barristers of the top five areas to consider before 5 April
Barristers are particularly at risk of burnout because of the nature of our work and our approach to it but it doesnt have to be this way. Jade Bucklow explores how culture, work and lifestyle changes can rejuvinate our mental health...
The case ofR v Brecanihas complicated matters for defence lawyers. Emma Fielding talks to gang culture expert, Dr Simon Harding about County Lines, exploitation and modern slavery
If the Bar cannot define and prohibit bullying behaviour, what chance do we have of persuading the Judiciary to do so? Darren Howe QC and Professor Jo Delahunty QC's call to action on codification plus suggested strategies for dealing with bullying from the Bar and Bench
The Schools Consent Project (SCP) is educating tens of thousands of teenagers about the law around consent to challenge and change what is now endemic behaviour. Here, its founder, barrister Kate Parker talks to Chris Henley QC about SCPs work and its association with Jodie Comers West End playPrima Facie, in which she plays a criminal barrister who is sexually assaulted
Professionally embarrassed? The circumstances in which criminal barristers may return instructions to appear at trial have become clearer following the Court of Appeal judgment inR v Daniels By Abigail Bright
