Features

The Independent Parliamentarians’ Inquiry into the Operation and Effectiveness of the Youth Court reported in June. Lord Carlile, who chaired the inquiry, explains its findings to Counsel.  

June 2014 saw the publication of a far reaching All Party Parliamentarians’ report on Youth Justice. 

Nathalie Lieven QC explains the Council of the Inns of Court’s first six funding scheme.  

As readers will know this is a very hard time for chambers that rely on publicly funded work, particularly those doing crime. One of the worst consequences of the extreme financial pressure that many chambers find themselves under has been a dramatic fall in the number of pupillages available, again particularly in criminal sets reliant on public funding. Although the reduction in pupillages is wholly understandable, it makes even worse the disparity between the number of people who complete their academic training but are unable to get a pupillage, and must place in jeopardy the future of the criminal Bar. 

The diversity of the employed Bar.  

A popular misconception when considering the employed Bar is assuming that roles are either in a solicitor’s firm or in the Government Legal Service or CPS. To dispel this myth, Melissa Coutinho begins a series of 60 second interviews which demonstrate the diversity of work that employed lawyers undertake. 

Lance Ashworth QC examines the unappreciated effects of legal aid cuts and how the Bar can help.  

More than a year after the significant cuts to civil legal aid introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, the Ministry of Justice has published statistics showing that spending on legal aid fell £150 million to £800 million in 2013-2014, the lowest level since 2007. 

Lord Judge gives his own view on the European Court of Human Rights.  

This response to the recent article in Counsel by my respected friend Dean Spielmann, President of the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, addressing what he identified as the two main criticisms of the Court, is entirely personal. 

On the eve of the Scottish referendum, Mark Hatcher reflects on politics either side of the border and conference season for all parties.  

When Tip O’Neill, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, died President Bill Clinton remarked that “he loved politics and government because he saw [they] could make a difference in people’s lives and he loved people most of all.” 

Job title 

Senior Clerk at Francis Taylor Building FTB is a long established leading public law set, with particular expertise in planning, land valuation, infrastructure, environmental, public law, licensing, religious liberty and ecclesiastical law and regulatory law. 

Eerie times in the courts.  

I try to get in all my sitting days as a Recorder of the Crown Court in one go if I can. I quite enjoy the daily routine with no annoying clients, witnesses or judges. Indeed, I am the annoying judge for a season. 

Mark Hatcher reviews the recent government reshuffle and its implications for the Bar.  

The government reshuffle which took place in mid-July – almost 52 years to the day after Harold Macmillan’s ”night of the long knives”, when seven Cabinet members (a third of the total, including the Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir) were sacked – was much more wide-ranging than expected. 

An interview with Simon Thornton-Wood by Rupert Jones of Citadel Chambers.  

Simon Thornton-Wood is head of education and training at the Bar Standards Board. He’s not a lawyer, in fact, he previously worked for the Royal Horticultural Society, but says that experience helps him in his role: “It puts me in the sorts of shoes that barristers are in, having the intellectual confidence to pick up whole new subject areas with a brief and approach it with a fresh mind.”