Features

The Bar Council has been running a joint roadshow with the BSB to initiate a debate on the business implications and opportunities presented by the Legal Services Act 2007 and the BSB’s rule changes. Paul Mosson and Ariel Ricci report back.  

On 20 November 2009 the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) announced decisions that have the potential to change the face of the Bar as we know it. While the BSB waits for these proposed changes to be approved by the Legal Services Board (“LSB”), the Bar Council put into motion a plan of action to begin educating and obtaining feedback from the profession. Last December, the Circuit Leaders, together with the Chairman of the Bar, Nick Green QC, and the BSB began scheduling a national roadshow to initiate a debate about how the profession can not only survive, but grow stronger and retain its unique attributes. 

Oliver Doherty, who attended the 2009 annual Salzburg Summer School on international criminal law, commends the course to students and junior practitioners alike.  

At the end of the Bar Vocational Course, (soon to become the Bar Professional Training Course) many aspiring barristers, whether or not they have secured pupillages, seek opportunities for volunteering and broadening their horizons, including short university courses which focus on particular areas of practice. 

With the general election looming, Richard Gordon QC argues that the price of restored trust in democracy may be a codified constitution 

Is it time for the UK to have a written constitution? In suggesting that we had no constitution, the 19th Century French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville was wrong. Britain does have a constitution but it is old-fashioned, top-down and—as far as the rest of the free, democratic world is concerned—of a fast-disappearing kind. 

What causes confusion is that, unlike us, nearly all democratic States have a written (in the sense of codified) constitution. Only Israel and New Zealand join us in relying on a nebulous body of rules, some contained in Acts of Parliament, some in constitutional conventions, some scattered around in the most diverse sources. The expenses scandal and the ensuing loss of trust in politics led many (myself included) to think we needed fundamental change. 

David Wurtzel meets Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the Vice-Chairman of the Bar Standards Board and discovers  it is a wise regulator who knows his own profession 

Sir Brian Neill, Richard Rampton QC, Heather Rogers QC,
Timothy Atkinson, Aidan Eardley
LexisNexis, 3rd edition (Aug 2009), £195.00, ISBN 978-0406178312 

Since the first edition of Duncan and Neill in 1978 the libel landscape has changed dramatically and looks set to continue doing so. Juries are no longer “in the position of sheep loosed on an unfenced common, with no shepherd” as Lord Bingham famously described them. More detailed directions are now commonplace and jury awards correspondingly smaller than in their zenith in the 1980’s; to the considerable relief of the popular press.  

Charles Hale on electioneering, acting and performances  

It’s strange, isn’t it? The airwaves are buzzing with talk of how this general election could be the first genuine internet election, with the main parties taking their lead from Obama’s celebrated use of online communication to help secure his victory. Apparently the latest political brainwave involves identifying hot news topics that will generate multiple searches and buying appropriately linked domain names. For example, if you want to know more about David Beckham’s Achilles tendon injury, you might Google “Beckham’s operation” – only to discover that this exact phrase has just been purchased by the Liberal Democrats. So, instead of learning about the England star’s dashed World Cup dreams, you find yourself reading Nick Clegg’s views on a hung Parliament. I can’t imagine that the man on the Clapham omnibus will welcome such blatant interference into his browsing habits, but maybe I just don’t understand as I’m not a politician. 

Tim Kevan takes a break from the Bar to go surfing and write a novel 

One of the joys of being a barrister is that you are self-employed and therefore get a lot more freedom over your own destiny than many might otherwise have in an employed position. Well, that’s in theory at least and I accept that it might sometimes appear illusory when there’s a backlog of papers sitting on your shelf and court days stacked to the horizon. For my part, I practised as a barrister for over ten years at the common law Bar at 1 Temple Gardens (now Temple Garden Chambers) in London and I had been able to use this flexibility to take breaks by the coast to catch the odd wave when the surfing conditions were right. It also meant that I’d had the chance to indulge another hobby—writing—as well as starting a couple of businesses. But as each of these things started to take more time, I eventually decided to make the jump and take a full-time break from the Bar for a while. 

Book review 

Gary Slapper
Wildy, Simmonds and Hill (Dec 2009), £9.99, ISBN 0854900616 

Courts often find themselves confronted with the most unusual aspects of human life. Gary Slapper’s compendium of “weird cases” describes cases drawn from around the globe that stand out from the rest. 

Name: Alan Austin
Position: Senior Clerk 

Chambers: 9 Stone Buildings 

David Wurtzel begins his introduction of the lay members of the Bar Standards Board 

Because they are not elected—although they are appointed in accordance with Nolan principles—the lay members of the Bar Standards Broad (“BSB”) have tended to be remote from ordinary barristers both in terms of what they do and of who they are. Counsel therefore decided to begin to introduce the lay members to its readership. There are seven lay members (including the Chair, Baroness Ruth Deech) on the BSB who are (in alphabetical order): Mrs Sarah Brown; Dr John Carrier; Ms Paula Diggle; Dr Vicki Harris; Professor Peter Hutton; and Richard Thompson OBE. David Wurtzel, Counsel’s Consultant Editor, met three of them in January and February 2010.