News

New measures to increase diversity in the judiciary have been agreed by the Bar Council, Law Society and Judicial Appointments Commission (“JAC”). 

In Case C-243/08 the ECJ held that in the area of consumer protection, national courts are not limited merely to ruling on the possible unfairness of a contractual term, but must also themselves examine that issue, where requisite legal and factual elements are available to them to do so. 

See: http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=EN&Submit=rechercher&numaff=C-243/08 

THE Bar Council has published its Annual Report and Accounts, setting out its achievements and financial data for 2008. The Report highlights the Bar Council’s activities over the past year in many areas including: 

On 19 May the ECJ issued judgments in Case C-531/06 and in Joined Cases C-171/07 and C-172/07 holding that Italian and German legislation restricting the ownership and operation of pharmacies to pharmacists alone is justified by the objective of ensuring that the provision of medicinal products to the public is reliable and of good quality. 

The Bar Standards Board has posted its response to the Legal Services Board’s consultation on regulatory independence on its website: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/consultations/bsbresponsestoconsutations/ 

All practising barristers are subject to CPD in 2009. If you have not received details about your CPD obligations or are unsure of them, please contact Rachel Reeves, Training Compliance Assistant on 020 7611 1444 or email rreeves@barstandardsboard.org.uk  If you have any queries regarding courses and accreditation, please contact Liz Prats, CPD Officer, on 020 7611 1444 or email lprats@barstandardsboard.org.uk 

In the first three years’ of practice, newly qualified practitioners are required to complete 45 hours of continuing professional development (CPD), including at least 9 hours of Advocacy Training and 3 hours of Ethics (the “New Practitioners’ Programme”). 

On completion of pupillage, practitioners will be sent a CPD Information Pack along with their Full Qualification Certificate. The Pack details further information about the New Practitioners’ Programme and includes a copy of the CPD record card. 

TWO new lay members and a solicitor member have been appointed to the QC Appointments Selection Panel, and one new lay member has been appointed to the QC Complaints Committee. The appointments to the Selection Panel bring the total number of those on the Panel up to nine. Sir Colin Budd, former Ambassador to the Netherlands, and Helen Pitcher, the Chief Executive and Deputy Chair of IDDAS, a
company which specialises in mentoring and advisory services to senior executives, are the two new lay members of the Appointments Panel; and Razi Shah, is the new solicitor member of the Appointments Panel. 

The Chair, Baroness Ruth Deech, and the Vice Chair, Sir Geoffre Nice, of the BSB have been travelling to meet barristers and colleagues in the Circuits. Baroness Deech talks in detail about the visits. 

The purpose of the visits was to see for ourselves the situation of the Bar throughout the country, and to ascertain what the BSB can do to help. We also wished to discuss with the circuit leaders the forthcoming changes to the structure of the practice of the Bar. On 26 May we were in Manchester to meet Stuart Brown QC and colleagues; on 28 May we went to Birmingham to meet Gareth Evans QC and colleagues and on 29 May we were in Newport with Winston Roddick QC and colleagues. A meeting with the South Eastern circuit will shortly take place. We were interested to hear their definitions of the essence of being a barrister (now that there is so much fluidity in the tasks and structure of legal professionals); how they feel about having one body representing both the employed and the referral Bar;
and the further ethical and regulatory difficulties they feel arise in dealing with both solicitors and barristers together in various practice structures. They were of the opinion that there might be a great deal in common between all advocates, whether solicitor or barrister, but at the same time voiced some anxiety about the training and quality checks needed to keep HCAs at the requisite level. On the whole they did not welcome moves towards LDPs and ABSs for their own sakes, let alone BOPs, with great enthusiasm - although seeing the inevitability. There was concern about conflicts and about the true independence of the advice that would be given to clients in a partnership structure rather than as an independent advisor. Parallels were drawn with the reorganisation of NHS dentistry and the abortive takeover of building societies by banks. 

A delegation of senior barristers led by Desmond Browne QC, the Chairman of the Bar, visited Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain between 24th and 28th May. It followed a first successful mission to the region in 2008. The senior members of the Bar Council taking part in this year’s delegation included Michael Brindle QC (immediate past Chairman of the Bar Council’s International Committee); Chantal- Aimée Doerries QC (Vice Chairman of the Bar Council’s International Committee and Chair of its International Business Development Working Group); Michael Patchett-Joyce (Vice Chairman of the Bar Council’s International Committee); and Dr Mark Hoyle (Member of the Bar Council’s International Committee with responsibility for the Middle East). 

This second delegation included leading representatives from four Specialist Bar Associations in order to ensure that their services can be effectively promoted in the region and that SBAs begin to develop their own programmes and activities. The SBAs involved were COMBAR, Chancery Bar Association, London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association and TECBAR.