News

THE Bar Council and the Law Society today published the report of Sir Duncan Nichol CBE’s review of Queen’s Counsel Appointments. 

The purpose of the review was to examine ways of improving the operation of the revised process for the appointment and selection of Queen’s Counsel in England and Wales, which is designed ‘to serve the public interest by offering a fair and transparent means of identifying excellence in advocacy’. 

TECBAR, COMBAR and the Bar European Group 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 CPD events and conferences. The International Secretariat has developed a scheme under which the cost of participating in such events is shared equally between the applicant, his/her SBA and the Bar Scholarship Trust. It is envisaged that this grant programme, which will fund up to two thirds of the costs of such an event, will encourage more junior barristers to participate in activities which will give them an international perspective on legal issues with the aim of helping them thrive in an increasingly globalised legal market. In return for the financial support the successful applicants commit to disseminating the knowledge and experience among junior members of his or her SBA. It his hoped that other SBAs will join this programme in due course. 

A delegation of senior barristers led by Desmond Browne QC, the Chairman of the Bar, has made a five-day visit to the Gulf. The Bar’s visit took in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, and followed the 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); Michael Patchett-Joyce (Vice Chairman of the Bar Council’s International Committee); and Dr Mark Hoyle (Chair of the Bar Council’s Middle East Interest Group, and Member of the Bar Council’s International Committee with responsibility for the Arab World). Those who visited the Gulf have years of practice as expert advocates in international commercial work. They used their visit to share their knowledge and experience of best practice with the local legal community. 

The fifteen Chinese lawyers who participated in the 2008-9 Programme have now finished their ten week placements in chambers, drawing to an end their eleven month programme in London. The end of the programme was marked by a week of social and educational activities, including a farewell lunch, a Moot Trial kindly led by the Inner Temple Student Mooting Society, a series of seminars in which the lawyers gave a “View from Legal China” and a networking reception. The lawyers were a hard working and enthusiastic group who enjoyed their stay in England, and who will return to China with a greater understanding of the legal system of England and Wales and the work of Barristers and with lasting friendships forged with the barristers and chambers who participated in the programme. 

THE Bar Council welcomed Lord Justice Jackson’s Preliminary Report reviewing the cost of civil litigation published today. Responses will be sought by Lord Justice Jackson from interested parties over the summer, before a final report and recommendations are published in late 2009. The Bar Council welcomes the initiative to review costs in civil matters. 

The Bar Council has already established a Jackson Working Group which will consider the issues raised by the Jackson Review. It is chaired by Michael Todd QC, with Susan Rodway QC as Vice-Chair. Representatives of a number of Specialist Bar Associations are members of the Group and they will be able to represent the diverse views of those working in the various civil fields. 

PROFESSOR Dame Joan Higgins has been appointed as the new lay Chair of the Queen’s Counsel Selection Panel, replacing Baroness Butler-Sloss GBE. The Panel assesses applicants for the award of Queen’s Counsel, given to those who demonstrate excellence in advocacy in the higher courts, following an objective assessment undertaken by it. The Selection Panel is independent, and includes lay members, as well as senior barristers and solicitors. The full press release is available on the Bar Council website. 

On 12 May the International Committee co-organised the launch of an important exhibition, documenting the fate of Jewish lawyers under the Nazi regime. The launch event was attended by leading representatives of the German and British legal professions, and featured a powerful speech by Sir Jack Beatson on the fate of German Jewish lawyers as well as the important contributions of those, like Michael Kerr, who escaped to the UK, to our legal system. The exhibition, now on display in the Temple Church, has been devised by the German Federal Bar (Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer), has travelled through Germany and is now touring around the globe. It is a powerful reminder how the rule of law can be undermined and abused by autocratic regimes. 

The Bar Council and the Law Society have joined forces to warn access to justice is at risk if the government “ploughs on with its reckless approach” to best value tendering (“BVT”). 

Shadow Attorney General Dominic Grieve lambasted the waste of money on an “entirely unnecessary” Supreme Court, when he delivered the recent Boydell lecture. 

The President of the Queen’s Bench Division invites expressions of interest from anyone wishing to be authorised as a deputy High Court judge under s 9(1) of the Supreme Court Act 1981 to undertake work in the Administrative Court, Commercial Court, Mercantile Court, Technology and Construction Court, and for general Queen’s Bench work. Applicants must be serving Circuit Judges or Recorders and this exercise is for the Queen’s Bench Division only. For detailed information go to: www.judiciary.gov.uk/deputy-hcj2009.htm. The closing date for applications is Friday, 3 July 2009.