Chair's Column

The need for the Bar to be representative of all of society; Bar placement week; working to ensure that younger members of the Bar are able to earn a living wage; and a call for volunteer chambers for next year’s placement and mentoring schemes.

Over February half-term, I was delighted to join a group of very talented and enthusiastic students on the final day of the Bar Council’s Leeds and Manchester Bar Placement Week 2015.

Alistair MacDonald QC on LPP and its historical origins; a client’s right of access to confidential advice; how RIPA overruled this principle of confidentiality; and the need for a robust, statutory framework.

The issue of legal professional privilege (LPP) has been prominently in the news recently and I wanted to share with you some of the things we have been doing to ensure that proper safeguards are in place for its protection.

The importance of the circuits; Penn and Mead revisited; lobbying for amendments to RIPA; the compilation of Guidelines for international arbitrations; and signing off ...

Sir Frederic Pollock and Professor Maitland wrote, in The History of English Law before the Time of Edward 1, that “a full history of the circuits would be intricate and wearisome”. (See Vol. 1, Ch. VII, p. 180.) I do not agree. I believe that a proper history of any circuit would be both entertaining and informative. I enjoyed the late Graeme Williams QC’s book on the old Oxford Circuit. It left me wanting more.

Cross-examination remaining at the heart of the criminal justice system; the Bar’s great advocates; its international reputation for excellence; and the work of the ATC.

I had intended to begin this month with a reference to the Congress of Vienna, which began 200 years ago, and at which Prince Metternich, Viscount Castlereagh, Talleyrand et al. settled the future of European international relations for a century. However, I have just received the news that Yorkshire County Cricket Club have won the County Championship, and can talk of little else.

Remembering the start of the Great War; the recent progress made in preserving criminal advocacy; reviewing business models; LASPO and the LAA figures; and an inquiry into the role of the Lord Chancellor.

The Great War began, for this country, on 4 August 1914, which must rank as one of the saddest days in our history, given the levels of death and destruction which followed. Although described by some as the war to end all wars, it was followed, only 25 years later, by the Second World War, which the United Kingdom entered on 3 September 1939.