Best-selling author of The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken (Picador: 2018) and Fake Law: the Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies (Picador: 2020) and Independent Blogger of the Year (2017 and 2016 Comment Awards), the Secret Barrister is a junior barrister specialising in criminal law and blogs at thesecretbarrister.com. Nothing But The Truth: Stories of Crime, Guilt and the Loss of Innocence by the Secret Barrister was published by Picador on 12 May 2022.
A warts-and-all look back at SB’s pupillage: an extract from Nothing But The Truth
Newly minted Bar graduates compete at a ratio of 300:1 for a golden ticket to Wonka’s Criminal Justice Factory. The Secret Barrister explains why…
Few cases raise more hackles than foreign nationals breaching our criminal law, only for the government’s attempts at deporting them to be frustrated.
An extract from Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies by the Secret Barrister
Something must be done or the much-vaunted ‘new normal’ will be taking place without us. The Secret Barrister boils down the critical issues into a five-point alternative recovery plan for criminal justice
Broadcasting deals for on-screen sentencing: a decontextualised gift to bad-faith editors? Why we shouldn’t lose sight of the risks to open justice. By The Secret Barrister
Taking stock of your practice, planning for the future and adjusting the way you work is one way to make use of interrupted times. Athena Markides grilled a panel, one famously secret, at the Bar Conference for their advice
Grilling Richard Atkins QC on his fears and aspirations for the year ahead, The Secret Barrister finds a crusader chair with an ambitious and overarching aim
Digitising documents, yes. Digitising clients, no. The Secret Barrister’s resistance to the video-link revolution is both practical and principled
The Secret Barrister wears a black cape, fights crime and shares with Counsel an extract from their much-anticipated book on the criminal justice system: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken
Chair of the Bar reports back
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs
A £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs has been made to the leading UK charity tackling international parental child abduction and the movement of children across international borders
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs, outlines the drug and alcohol testing options available for family law professionals, and how a new, free guide can help identify the most appropriate testing method for each specific case
By Louise Crush of Westgate Wealth Management
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs, examines the latest ONS data on drug misuse and its implications for toxicology testing in family law cases
The odds of success are as unforgiving as ever, but ambition clearly isn’t in short supply. David Wurtzel’s annual deep‑dive into the competition cohort shows who’s entering, who’s thriving and the trends that will define the next wave
Where to start and where to find help? Monisha Shah, Chair of the King’s Counsel Selection Panel, provides an overview of the silk selection process, debunking some myths along the way
There is no typical day in the life as a Supreme Court judicial assistant, says Josephine Gillingwater, and that’s what makes the role so enjoyably diverse
The Bar Council is ready to support a turn to the efficiencies that will make a difference
The white-collar criminal and civil silk Jonathan Fisher KC, Independent Reviewer of Disclosure and Fraud Offences, advocates modernising the disclosure regime and harnessing AI to reduce the court backlog. He tells Anthony Inglese CB about his career path and conclusions of his review
