News

NICHOLAS Green QC, the Chairman of the Bar Council, called on the Government to take a more considered approach to lawmaking as Liberal Democrat Conference delegates came together to consider the repeal of some of the huge number of criminal offences created by the previous Government. 

Lord Justice Wall, the President of the Family Division, has called for greater “judicial continuity” in family cases and warned of the trauma which separating parents inflict on their offspring. 

Mind, the mental health charity, and the Bar Council have developed a mental health toolkit for advocates, to help ensure that victims and witnesses with mental health issues are treated fairly and questioned in a relevant and non-discriminatory way.

Barristers’ chambers should adopt formal, regulated mentoring schemes to encourage diversity, a Legal Services Board (“LSB”) report has recommended. 

A delegation of nine office holders from the Beijing Lawyers Association, who are also practitioners at some of China’s leading local law firms visited the Bar Council on 1 October to follow up on a visit by the Bar Council to their headquarters in Beijing earlier this year. 

THE Bar Council has played a central role at the International Bar Association’s Annual Conference, which took place in Vancouver, Canada, last month. The IBA Annual Conference brings together more than 4,000 practitioners and Bar leaders and officials from all over the world. 

THE Bar Council explained the high quality and high value services which the Bar offers both at home and abroad when it hosted a seminar as part of City Week’s two-day UK International Financial Services Forum on 20-21 September 2010. 

The Sentencing Council has launched a public consultation, proposing changes to the guidelines for assault offences.

The LSC has carried out an evaluation of the e-tendering process, following the recent electronic tender for the 2010 civil and crime contracts.  The results will be published by 24 September.

On p 34 of the last issue of Counsel we confused Andrew Moran (of Serle Court) who went to Zimbabwe with Desmond Browne QC, with Andrew Moran QC (of 7 Harrington Street Chambers).