Features

Counsel put the following questions to the inaugural Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.  

Your career has been unusual in that you have combined being a professor of law at UCL with work as a university administrator (Dean of Law and Vice Provost of UCL), with practice at the Bar (at Blackstone Chambers) and membership of various public bodies. Which of these activities is most relevant to your work for the new Centre? 

As the Coalition Government begins its bonfire of the quangos, the judicial office of Chief Coroner can be found among the ashes, says John Cooper QC 

As the Coalition Government begins to burn the quangos, among the ashes can be found the office of Chief Coroner. Never can a judicial office have been so short lived. Strangled at birth would be exaggerating its longevity as the post was only just about to be filled. Although “under review”, most commentators now believe that the Chief Coroner will be abolished – if you can abolish something that has not yet happened. 

Lord Bingham of Cornhill, who died in September 2010, possessed intellectual qualities of a rare kind, writes Lord Justice Sedley 

No reader of Counsel needs to be reminded of the remarkable career trajectory of Tom Bingham, from Queen’s Bench judge and Lord Justice of Appeal through the offices of Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice to the (anomalously inferior) post of Senior Law Lord. What may have been forgotten is that the last of these posts was created for him by Derry Irvine. 

What are the advocate’s emotional drivers when conducting a cross-examination, wonders Professor Penny Cooper. The ability to continually assess the witness’s demeanour and adjust one’s questioning is crucial, she concludes.  

In 1905 in The Art of Cross-examination, Francis Wellman wrote “It requires the greatest ingenuity; a habit of logical thought; clearness of perception in general; infinite patience and self-control; power to read men’s minds intuitively, to judge of their character by their faces, to appreciate their motives; ability to act with force and precision; a masterful knowledge of the subject-matter itself; an extreme caution; and, above all, the instinct to discover the weak point in the witness under cross-examination.” 

Position: Barrister
Chambers: 3-4 South Square 

You’ve worked on all the leading cross-border insolvency cases. Which ones have engaged you the most?

I really enjoy legally and factually difficult cases and I’m as happy to work for a large client as for a smaller client. Recent cases of particular interest include Stanford (the first case on the Cross Border Insolvency Regulation) for the US receiver against the Antiguan liquidators. The interaction between the two sets of office holders caused a lot of difficulty. 

Siobhan Grey discusses the Tate Modern and Gray’s Inn symposium on voyeurism, privacy, censorship and surveillance 

The curtain has now fallen on “Exposed” the Tate Modern’s provocative photographic exhibition. It skilfully captured the political and cultural zeitgeist through an exploration of the themes of voyeurism, privacy and surveillance and raised important ethical questions about the taking of illicit or covert photographs. 

Towards the end of his training contract, the author decided to transfer to the Bar. He also applied for newly-qualified positions as a solicitor. He describes a Summer of over 60 interviews, comparing chambers’ interviews with those conducted by City law firms 

Towards the end of my training contract at a “magic circle” firm, I decided to pursue my long-held ambition to transfer to the Bar. So began the quest for one of the 460 pupillages contested by over 4,000 applicants. With these statistics and the current job market in mind, I also applied for newly-qualified (“NQ”) litigation positions in City law firms, making it clear that I was also applying for pupillage and, if offered a position, I could only work for a year before starting pupillage. 

Elizabeth Cleaver hopes that the recently adopted European guidelines on child-friendly justice will result in substantial changes in the UK’s treatment of children within the courts 

On 17 November 2010, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted new Guidelines on Child-Friendly Justice “to serve as a practical tool for member states in adapting their judicial and non-judicial systems to the specific rights, interests and needs of children.” 

Andrew Otchie on the highlights of the American Bar Association annual meeting.  

The American Bar Association (“ABA”) annual meeting is a big event. The 2010 conference in San Francisco California between 5 and 10 August was no exception. The various sections, divisions and forums of the ABA offer such a broad range of seminars to discuss the contemporary and controversial legal issues in America – with the focus this year on same-sex marriage, anticipatory self-defence in international law, marijuana regulation, and Facebook – that choosing which seminars to attend and navigating through the 288 page programme to the appropriate venue is quite a task in itself. 

Chris McWatters believes that the FLBA Chairman will need all his diplomatic wizardry to deal with the fizzing brew of change facing the Family Bar