*/
The great and the good turned out to mark the 800th anniversary of King John sealing Magna Carta in 1215.
Bar Chairman Alistair MacDonald QC was among the throng that joined the Queen at Runnymede, where the Duke of Cambridge unveiled a commemorative artwork.
Alluding to his government’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act, Prime Minister David Cameron told those gathered: “For centuries, Magna Carta has been quoted to help promote human rights and alleviate suffering all around the world. But here in Britain ironically, the place where those ideas were first set out, the good name of human rights has sometimes been distorted and devalued. It falls to us in this generation to restore the reputation of those rights – and their critical underpinning of our legal system. It is our duty to safeguard the legacy, the idea, the momentous achievement of those barons.”
The great and the good turned out to mark the 800th anniversary of King John sealing Magna Carta in 1215.
Bar Chairman Alistair MacDonald QC was among the throng that joined the Queen at Runnymede, where the Duke of Cambridge unveiled a commemorative artwork.
Alluding to his government’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act, Prime Minister David Cameron told those gathered: “For centuries, Magna Carta has been quoted to help promote human rights and alleviate suffering all around the world. But here in Britain ironically, the place where those ideas were first set out, the good name of human rights has sometimes been distorted and devalued. It falls to us in this generation to restore the reputation of those rights – and their critical underpinning of our legal system. It is our duty to safeguard the legacy, the idea, the momentous achievement of those barons.”
The Chair of the Bar reports back
By Kem Kemal, CEO, Henry Dannell
By BSK Financial Planning
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs
Susie Griffin on the admin that keeps barristers from billable work
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Kick off your career at the Bar Council’s Pupillage Fair this October – it’s one of the most valuable opportunities for aspiring barristers, says Amelia Clegg
Join us on Saturday 21 November 2026 at Leeds Beckett University and see for yourself why the North continues to be an exceptional place to build a career at the Bar
The golden age of advocacy? David Langwallner pays homage to the filmic if contentious barrister Sir Edward Carson and some of his contemporaries
Henry Fingerhut outlines what the Bar Standards Board AI guidance means for early career barristers
Not yet, says Jacob Turner. Regulation, unlike the technology itself, is a domain the legal profession can still control
