News

Lady Justice Hallett has been appointed chair of the Judicial Studies Board, with effect from 1 July.

The Bar Loans Scheme, which helps finance BVC students, could form a blueprint for other professions such as medicine and architecture.

THE Bar Council has voiced its deep concern over the arrest of Professor Peter Erlinder in Kigali, Rwanda. 

The Bar Council is continuing its campaign to promote barristers in the Middle East with a business development mission to the Gulf destinations of Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman. This will take place over 6 days at the end of November/beginning of December (precise dates tbc). Interested members should submit initial expressions of interest to rbhegani@barcouncil.org.uk with a brief explanation why they are interested and how their practice might benefit. 

The BSB has launched a survey for Bar Vocational Course leavers, encouraging the students to have their say and influence the Course for future years. The survey is open until 31 August 2010. 

The survey can be accessed at: http://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/bptc 

The Bar Council has published “The Future of the Bar”, an 85-page treatise on the current state and health of the Bar, authored by the Bar Chairman.

Direct access across the board is inevitable for the Bar, according to the Chairman of the Bar Council. 

A new “hub” for national pro bono work will open at 48 Chancery Lane this summer, marking a significant milestone for charitable work by lawyers. 

New sitting times will apply to two courtrooms at Croydon from late June. The Crown Court is testing the concept of double shift sittings for six months in two of the ten Croydon courtrooms, Courts Three and Five. There will be two separate shifts in each courtroom. The first shift will be 9am to 1.30pm, and the second will be 2pm to 6.30pm.

A large group of people involved in delivering the Lord Chancellor’s Training Scheme (LCTS) including barrister and solicitor mentors and representatives from SOAS, the British Council and Ministry of Justice attended an enjoyable reception held in the Prince’s Room of middle Temple to celebrate the lawyers’ successful completion of the programme and bid them well on their journeys back to China.