News

The Bar Council Scholarship Trust is sponsoring an essay competition, open to law students and pupils. 

The Legal Services Act has dramatically reformed the regulatory landscape for barristers, allowing practise in new business structures
alongside other barristers, legal professionals and nonlawyers. 

COMBAR, the Bar European Group, the Criminal Bar Association, the London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association (LCLCBA) and TECBAR have joined forces with the Bar Council’s International Committee to offer their members of 7 years call or less, who are in employed or self-employed practice, financial assistance to participate in international legal events and conferences which contribute to their professional development. 

Plans to cut conditional fee agreements (“CFA”) success fees for libel cases by up to 90 per cent have been dropped owing to lack of Parliamentary time. 

The controversial plans, which were opposed by many claimant libel lawyers, would have capped the success fee chargeable in CFAs from a maximum 100 per cent to ten per cent. The reforms had previously failed to pass the committee stage in the House of Commons after four labour MPs joined opposition parties to vote it down. 

The International Committee hosted a delegation of over fifty commercial and criminal lawyers from the Law Society of Zambia on 14th April which helped forge closer relations between the two professions. 

Plans are underway for a delegation comprised of representatives from both the Bar Council and Law Society to visit Shanghai to deliver a commercial seminar as part of the UK Trade and Investment coordinated UK Financial and Professional Services Week, taking place as part of Shanghai Expo. 

Following a successful mission to Moscow last summer the Bar Council has intensified its relations with the Moscow City Bar, leading to the signature of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in March. Under this MoC both organisations will work more closely together in a number of ways. 

The Legal Services Board approves Bar Standards Board applications designed to relax provisions in Code of Conduct for barristers’ working practices 

Board papers and agendas are now available to view on the BSB website prior to meetings. 

In the 14 years since Michael Kalisher QC was so early lost to the Bar the scholarships in his name have allowed law students of ambition and verve to make a go of it at the criminal Bar when financial constraint might otherwise have deterred them, writes Max Hardy.  

The Kalisher Event has helped augment his legacy by adding to the Scholarship’s coffers. The willingness of so many first-rate actors to give up their time without charge to put on an event for this cause is truly heartening and anybody who has attended the Kalisher Event over the last few years can testify to the exceptionally high quality of the entertainment provided.