Features

Baroness Scotland scored a number of firsts simply in becoming Attorney General. In office she has taken an unprecedented lead in ensuring that those who represent the Crown are as diverse as the Bar and in encouraging the Bar to be as diverse as the people it represents, finds David Wurtzel 

What happens if a professional complaint is made against you? Luke Blackburn explains how recent changes to Bar Mutual funding can assist.  

It will be one of the more worrying letters you will ever read, but if you receive a letter from the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) seeking your comments on a complaint you don’t have to deal with it alone. The chances are that just the same bruising ordeal has been experienced by a number of barristers you know. 

A criminal barrister in his early 50s recounts how his life was turned upside down by a stroke, and offers some advice.  

It is 4.30am. I have to leave for court in four hours’ time. I can’t sleep, but it isn’t the imminent case that keeps me awake. My left arm has pins and needles. The sensation isn’t going away. In fact, it’s spreading to my leg. I put up with this for a long time, expecting it to stop. Then I settle for hoping it will stop, until eventually my wife is dragged from sleep by my increasing restlessness. We debate the situation. I insist forcefully that I’m fine to go to court, but it turns out that I can’t walk. I can’t even stand unsupported. By now, my entire left side is alive with strangeness, yet oddly dead. We agree that the court had better wait. Soon afterwards I am in A&E. Our lives are changing irrevocably as the minutes pass. The Acute Stroke Ward beckons, and my family and I enter uncharted territory. 

Catherine Baksi looks at the social and sporting activities provided by the Bar and the Inns of Court.  

All work and no play makes Jack or Jill a dull boy or girl. And that aphorism seems to be taken to heart by many at the Bar – for as well as working hard, barristers play hard too. The Bar and the four Inns of Court have a number of active sporting and social clubs, which not only help members relax, but help foster collegiality among the profession. Here is some, though not an exhaustive selection of what is on offer. 

A criminal barrister in his early 50s recounts how his life was turned upside down by a stroke, and offers some advice.  

It is 4.30am. I have to leave for court in four hours’ time. I can’t sleep, but it isn’t the imminent case that keeps me awake. My left arm has pins and needles. The sensation isn’t going away. In fact, it’s spreading to my leg. I put up with this for a long time, expecting it to stop. Then I settle for hoping it will stop, until eventually my wife is dragged from sleep by my increasing restlessness. We debate the situation. I insist forcefully that I’m fine to go to court, but it turns out that I can’t walk. I can’t even stand unsupported. By now, my entire left side is alive with strangeness, yet oddly dead. We agree that the court had better wait. Soon afterwards I am in A&E. Our lives are changing irrevocably as the minutes pass. The Acute Stroke Ward beckons, and my family and I enter uncharted territory. 

The recent reforms in the area of fraud and financial crime amount to little more than re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, writes Jonathan Fisher QC. More radical reform to the statutory framework is required 

29 May 2009: old questions, new answers and a face-to-face meeting 

Khadija Ali and Lynne Townley explain the background to the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 and consider what all sectors are doing to tackle the problem.  

Since the murder of Heshu Yones in 2002, the issue of forced marriage and other forms of honour based violence have been the source of media attention and more significantly that of the Government which brought the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 into effect on 25 November 2008. 

Jodie Blackstock explores the issues raised by the European Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia and argues that tangible curtailments to freedom of speech could follow 

HD Lodge looks at practical ways for counsel to organise and work online, and how to avoid professional difficulties.  

There is a man called Patrick on Facebook™*. He purports to be a barrister and offers legal “advice” for £6 (six pounds sterling) a time. None of us would compete with him on price; but each of us must adapt to the technology he uses.