Features

A high octane achievement  

Philip Bartle reviews the most recent concert of the Bar Choral Society 

Jess Campbell provides an overview of pro bono work countrywide, reviews a successful National Pro Bono Week and issues an appeal for Gift Aid declarations  

Since my last column (October 2015), Bar Pro Bono Unit (BPBU) staff have travelled across England and Wales: to the Legal Wales Conference in Cardiff, to the Civil Justice Council and Ministry of Justice meetings in Norwich and Bristol, and given talks in Birmingham, Newcastle and Nottingham, to name but a few. 

Legal practitioners from different backgrounds share their experiences of the developing regulatory area with Melissa Countinho  

Today there appears to be more regulation than ever before, despite the aims of reducing unnecessary bureaucracy.  

Leaving is so very hard to do  

“What you are to do without me I cannot imagine…” – George Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion” 

David Wurtzel interviews the incoming Chairman of the Bar, Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC  

The 2016 Chairman of the Bar, Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC, came to the profession slightly by accident.  

Daniel Sternberg reports back from this year’s Young Bar Conference  

Over 150 employed and self-employed barristers and law students gathered on 17 October 2015 for the 11th Young Bar Conference.  

Paramjit Ahluwalia examines the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and asks whether it will work to abolish today’s trade in human capital  

Presenting his first Abolitionist Bill to the House of Commons in 1789, William Wilberforce concluded his speech with the words: ‘Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way but you can never again say that you did not know.’ 

Sheryn Omeri on the destruction of cultural property and the first International Criminal Court prosecution 

Partner at Harneys, Hong Kong  

Harneys is a leading offshore legal and fiduciary services firm with more than 10 offices spanning the world. 

Mark Hatcher examines the issues facing those in Westminster at the start of the new year  

Few MPs returning to Westminster after the Christmas recess will have been able to predict how the last year would have ended: a majority Conservative Government, an Opposition that is in disarray in the parliamentary party with a frontbench openly at odds with its leader, the decimation of the Liberal Democrats in the Commons, 54 seats occupied by Scottish Nationalists, the collapse of Labour in Scotland with just one seat north of the border at Westminster and one held by the Conservatives and four million votes for UKIP at last May’s election.