Features

Michael Beloff QC outlines the duties and challenges awaiting Court of Arbitration for Sport panel members during London 2012 

As London 2012, so long in the gestation is finally brought to birth, a cohort of 12 accomplished lawyers, representing every major continent, will enjoy – if precedent is anything to go by – freedom of the Olympic lanes with personally allotted drivers while Mr and Mrs Public make do with a metropolitan transport system under maximum strain. 

Is rape sentencing unduly lenient? Felicity Gerry and Catarina Sjölin report 

A quick click of the Attorney General’s website gives instant access to statistics for unduly lenient sentences up to and including 2010. During 2010, there were nine rape and attempted rape referrals among the total of 78 cases which went to the Court of Appeal. Of those nine, seven sentences were increased and two remained the same. To give an idea of the other offences referred there were 12 sentences involving robbery (of which 10 were increased, two remained the same) and 18 sentences involved non-fatal offences against the person (of which 12 were increased, two remained the same and one had the conviction quashed). 

A yearning for the good old days when murder trials could be wrapped up in a fortnight and juries usually came to a verdict in a day

April 15, 2012: “Did you like her?” “Did I like her?” “Yes, that is the question.”                       
The opening of Frederick  Seddon’s cross-examination by Sir Rufus Issacs KC

Why do criminal trials take so long nowadays? The thought struck me as I re-read the trial of Frederick Seddon in Notable British Trials, – a wonderful series that some enterprising soul should resurrect, save that each major trial would now need 15 volumes.

Paul Marshall reflects on a recent conversation between Channel 4’s Jon Snow and law reporter turned novelist, Elenor Dymott. 

Easter is not a bad time to recall the question Pontius Pilate is reported as having asked: ‘’what is truth?”. Jesting Pilate would not stay for an answer, says Francis Bacon. It is not clear whether Pilate’s reluctance to enter into further debate on the question was attributable more to judicial impatience or intellectual humility. The narrower issue of truth as to disputed fact, that the trial process is believed to facilitate, may not be straightforward. Lord Justice Browne commented: 

Natalia Rymaszewska and Julia Jones explain the benefits of the sponsored  walks being undertaken by lawyers all over the country 

The London Legal Walk is a superb opportunity to come together with fellow lawyers from across the whole profession, and to do so for a very deserving cause. I am looking forward to seeing many more chambers and in-house counsel teams joining us for this year’s walk in support of the great work of our pro bono and legal advice agencies 
Dominic Grieve QC MP, Attorney General  

Chief Legal Ombudsman, Adam Sampson, provides guidance on how barristers can best avoid complaints about costs. 

You’ll have heard a lot about new financial models for barristers. The topic seems to be the common theme of most journals at the moment. The thrust of it all I agree with; a decent standard of financial literacy seems fundamental to making sure the legal profession keeps pace with its more commercially minded cousins, especially if, as we are all regularly told, consumers are expecting more and becoming increasingly savvy. 

The Supreme Court is getting sporty in the run-up to the Olympics with a unique exhibition charting the history of the Games and the law. The exhibition, “Playing by the Rules”, will include memorabilia from the 1908 and 1948 London Olympics as well as interactive displays, panels and interesting artefacts.  

Ethics, anti-doping, branding, commercialisation and the role of the Court of Arbitration for Sport are all issues tackled by the free exhibition, which is open to the public from July, a week before the Olympics begin, until the end of September. 

Job title
Silk, 20 Essex Street

20 Essex Street is a long-established set of commercial barristers’ chambers with offices in London and Singapore. Members advise on all aspects of international trade, commerce and finance with specialist expertise in banking, shipping, insurance, insolvency, IT, competition, public international law, and European Community law.

As principal legal adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) from May 2006 to May 2011, how did you approach the role?

Legal professional privilege

The continued use of state powers to erode legal professional privilege must be stopped, as Nicholas Griffin QC and Gordon Nardell QC explain 

The state has the power secretly to listen in to the meetings you hold with your clients in chambers, at a solicitors’ firm or elsewhere. This surprising situation – and the troubling cases that have brought it to light – have led the Bar Council’s Law Reform Committee to consider state powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and have prompted the Bar Council to campaign for a change to the law. 

A look at the battle tactics and power struggles that have governed the reigns of Heads of Chambers since the beginning of time...

March 11, 2012: “Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” - Niccolo Machiavelli
 
March is the season of our Annual General Meeting. In times gone by this was a rather jolly affair in which we took rooms at leading London hotels and had a good old natter, followed by a decent lunch. There has, however, been a tendency to slum it in recent times. We have started hiring conference rooms with decidedly inferior cuisine or pokey little rooms in the Inns. However, the siting of this year’s meeting at a church hall in Hackney represented a new phase in our existence.