News

BACFI and the BSB held a workshop at Gray’s Inn on 21 March to find out why, when scores of pupillages were available 20 years ago in industry as well as chambers, only three commercial firms are currently registered as Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) and none have pupils at the moment.

The Professional Conduct Committee of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) maintains a panel of prosecuting barristers to represent it at Disciplinary Tribunals of the Council of the Inns of Court and other related hearings and it is currently looking to replenish its panel.

Please note that if you were due to complete your practising period of pupillage before the 1 April 2012 and have not yet submitted satisfactory pupillage documentation, you are not eligible to commence practice. In order to commence practice after your second six, you must submit a certificate signed by each of your pupil supervisors, as well as the Head of Chambers/ Director of Pupil Training confirming that you have completed pupillage and return a completed Notification of Status form confirming that you have commenced practice and providing your practice address.

Profession

Judges would be able to take advantage of flexible working and career breaks under proposals put forward by the House of Lords Constitution Committee.  Senior judges could work until the age of 75, laypersons could sit on selection panels and judges could be formally appraised on their performance, the peers suggested in their March report, Judicial Appointments.

This will again be a major outing for the Bar Council and we encourage all members to attend. With up to 5000 international lawyers attending, this is an excellent networking opportunity for those seeking to build their international practice.

Discrimination

An attempt to prove that a rule requiring chambers to fund pupillages led to indirect race discrimination against an applicant, has failed in the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Expert Witnesses

Expert psychologists instructed in family cases are often “inadequately qualified”, produce poor quality reports and delegate key parts of the work to graduate assistants.

• Following changes to the Immigration Rules there was previously no route for foreign lawyers and non EEA barristers to enter the UK for legal work for short periods. Given London’s role as a centre for international dispute resolution this was a potential problem, and it prevented foreign lawyers from coming to London for a conference with a barrister. Following a meeting with the UK Border Agency in January, the International Committee (IC) successfully lobbied for the inclusion of foreign lawyers and barristers in a new “permitted paid engagements” route, which will allow non-EEA barristers and foreign lawyers to enter the UK to work for a maximum of one month (entry into force: 6 April).  

Ministry of Justice

MPs have delivered a scathing report on Ministry of Justice (MoJ) failings in financial management.
A Public Accounts Committee report, published in March, highlighted the MoJ’s “inability to report its financial affairs on a timely and accurate basis”.

Seven young Russian lawyers took part in the first exchange of this new scheme. The programme is run by the Bar Council, the Law Society and the Federal Chamber of Advocates and has the support of both countries’ Ministries of Justice. The Russian lawyers spent three weeks in law firms followed by three weeks in chambers, and were offered one evening seminar per week.