News

On 3 December the Bar Council’s international committee with the support of Outer Temple Chambers, COMBAR’s Africa sub committee, ChBA and the CBA, welcomed a delegation of Nigerian lawyers who were participating in a week long programme organised by the Law Society. The event began with a meeting to introduce the work of the Bar Council, the SBAs and barristers and was followed by a drinks reception which was attended by barristers with interest in Nigeria.

The Bar Standards Board has paved the way for fundamental changes in barristers’ working practices by giving approval for barristers to supply legal services through the legal structures known as Legal Disciplinary Practices (LDPs). The BSB has taken significant decisions in order to open up the legal services market so that consumers have access to even better value, quality, legal services in fulfilment of the Regulatory of the Legal Services Act 2007. 

The BSB formed an Alternative Business Structures Working Group in 2007 to consider how barristers might become involved in LDPs and ABSs. The work of that group has been thorough and detailed, including three consultations on various aspects of the possible impacts of the Legal Services Act. The reports of the Group were considered by the Board at its meeting on Thursday 17 November and the Board accepted the following recommendations: 

THE Bar Council, in conjunction with the Inns of Court, has launched No bar to the Bar, a review of the diverse measures adopted by the profession to help all those of ability to have access to a career as a barrister, regardless of their background. 'No bar to the Bar' takes stock of the Bar’s continuing work in this area, and gives a snapshot of just some of the talented applicants who have achieved real success at the Bar and within the judiciary. 

A deal to ensure proper funding for representation in the most complex criminal trials has today been threatened by a last-minute change of heart by the Government, the Bar said. The Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association have reacted angrily to a new Legal Services Commission consultation paper on pay for so-called Very High Cost Cases – VHCCs – which include some of the most sensitive terror and murder trials before the courts. 

Bar representatives have been working with MoJ officials for nearly two years on a flexible pay scheme for senior advocates that would match the pay in each case to its particular circumstances. However, it emerged late in talks last month that the Government wanted to introduce a new, costcutting option for pay in these cases, involving an extension of the existing, fixed-fee scheme for shorter cases to include much longer cases lasting up to 60 days. The consultation paper of 2 December 2009 confirmed the eleventh-hour change. 

MANIFESTO FOR JUSTICE PUBLISHED 

Issued on behalf of: AdviceUK, The General Council of the Bar, ILEX, JUSTICE, Law Centres Federation, Legal Action Group, Legal Aid Practitioners Group, Liberty 

A broad and influential coalition of eight leading legal and campaigning organisations has called on politicians to put justice centre stage in the forthcoming General Election campaign. 

Publishing aManifesto for Justice, the groups – which represent consumers, lawyers and justice campaigns - have called for three principles of justice to be upheld by all those involved in the political debate. 

As Director of Public Prosecutions and Chairman of the Bar, we are pleased to report that constructive and positive discussions between the CPS and the Bar Council have re-commenced.

The purpose of the discussions is to explore possible ways for a viable referral Bar, with the right skills and qualities to handle a continuing requirement for prosecution advocacy at all levels in the Crown Court and higher courts, alongside a cadre of Crown Advocates employed by the CPS.

From 1 January 2010 the standard rate of value added tax  will be increased from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent. The Bar Council has published a guide setting out the key points of law which barristers and their clerks will need to be aware of in order to implement the change. It is available at www.barcouncil.org.uk.

Lucy Theis QC and Nicholas Lavender QC of the self-employed Bar have been elected to the 2010 Bar Council. Also elected are: self-employed barristers over seven years’ Call, Lucy Frazer, Tom Crowther, Fiona Jackson, Charles Hale, Andrew Bagchi, Nick Worsley and Kerry Bretherton; self-employed barristers under seven years’ Call, Belle Turner, Nichola Higgins, Laura Elizabeth John and Hannah Kinch; employed barristers over seven years’ Call, Peter Grieves-Smith, Amanda-Jane Field and Philip Bennetts; and employed barristers under seven years’ Call, Lenny S T Cheng and Major David Euan Hammond RM.

The Bar Council was delighted to welcome the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, Judge Anthony Gubbay to the Inner Temple on 9th December to speak on, “the progressive erosion of the Rule of Law in Independent Zimbabwe”. Judge Gubbay chartered the gradual erosion of the Rule of Law under the Mugabeled government from his unique perspective as the leading judge in Zimbabwe. He referred to the practice of placing of regime-friendly judges in powerful positions, the treatment of land invasions as a political rather than legal issue, the amendment of the Declaration of Rights to the detriment of individual rights, the abuse of the presidential pardon and clemency, the intimidation of a free press and human rights defenders, the non compliance of the government with a SADC tribunal judgement and to the threat to his own personal security he encountered as Chief Justice. Judge Gubbay applauded those individuals who put themselves at risk by highlighting the government’s disregard for the rule of law and by campaigning for the protection of human rights. He offered some cause for hope with the recent political change and signs the judiciary may be finding their voice again, but warned that there is a long and difficult road ahead. This event, which once more attracted a large audience, was the third in a series of annual lectures on current challenges facing the rule of law around the world, organised by the International Committee of the Bar Council.

Securing stability for the publicly funded Bar and the need for all barristers to modernise in the fast-moving legal landscape have been set at the heart of the agenda for 2010 by the new Bar Council Chairman, Nick Green QC. 

“The Bar has made great strides in recent years to improve diversity and equality in the profession. These very positive steps are jeopardised by recent government cuts, which do nothing to make the profession a more attractive place to come for a student saddled with a substantial debt as he or she leaves education and training,” he warned.