News

The BSB held its second Clementi Debate at the Main Hall, Inner Temple, on Thursday 2 April. The theme of the Debate was “Quality at what cost”. The Panel was chaired by Sir David Clementi, who in December 2004 published a report on The Regulatory Framework for
Legal Services in England and Wales. The event was attended by barristers, representatives from other legal bodies and individuals who shared an interest in the work of the BSB. The Panel consisted of: 

• Response to the Second Consultation Paper issued by the Bar Standards Board in December 2008 by the Working Group on Behalf of the General Management Committee of the Bar Council and the Bar Council of England and Wales  
• Chairman’s letter to Ms Cathryn Hannah, Legal Services Board: 13 March 2009 Response of the Law Reform Committee to the Select Committee on the Constitution, House of Lords Call for Evidence: Emergency Legislation  
• Response of the Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council and of the Criminal Bar Association to the Sentencing Advisory Panel’s Consultation on Principles of Sentencing for Youths  
• Neuberger Progress Table Coroners and Justice Bill 2009 - A Parliamentary Briefing Paper prepared for Report in the House of Commons on 23rd and 24th March 2009  
• Barristers’ Complaints Advisory Service - Panel Members  
• Remuneration Conference Booking Form 2009 

• Non-Practising Members’ Services Fee renewals sent 4 March 2009 for payment by 6 April 2009. 
• Employed Practising Certificate and Members’ Services Fee renewals sent 2 March 2009 for payment by 6 April 2009. 

The Bar Council is to register its Brussels-based lobbying activities with the European Commission’s European Transparency Initiative (ETI), which promotes transparency and ethical conduct in EU lobbying. See  Bar News p i.

 Lord Hoffmann has criticised the European Court of Human Rights for behaving like the US Supreme Court on human rights issues. 

THE Chairmen of the Bar Council of England and Wales and of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales expressed their deep concern in a press release on 13 March 2009 at reports of the arrest and detention of magistrate Livingstone Chipadze in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The press release raised the following concerns, although the situation may have changed since. 

Mr Chipadze was reported to be accused of criminal abuse of office, apparently on the basis that on Tuesday 3 March he allowed lawyers for Roy Bennett MP to post bail of $2,000. Mr Bennett is the MDC’s nominee for agriculture minister in the Zimbabwean Unity Government. However, he has not been sworn in to that post, having been detained on terrorism charges in February. 

On Monday, 18 May over 2,000 lawyers, members of the judiciary and others will stroll, or even run, the well-trodden route between London’s most famous legal landmarks.

IT 

This is the first of two articles on WORD 2007 intended for less experienced users. This first article is for those who have not yet installed WORD 2007 and receive by e-mail a document formatted in WORD 2007 which they consequently cannot open; or for those who have just had WORD 2007 installed, and have yet to learn their way around it. The second article will address three specific problems that counsel may have in using WORD 2007: general formatting, producing a document where the main text has page numbers but the backsheet does not; and removing a record of previous editing (metadata). 

Regulation is not about consensus, Sir David Clementi told the audience at the second annual Clementi Debate. 

The Bar Council is to register its Brussels-based lobbying activities with the European Commission’s European Transparency Initiative (ETI). Established in 2008, the ETI is designed to promote transparency and ethical conduct in the representation of interests to the European Commission and other institutions of the European Union. 

Under the ETI the Bar Council will disclose details of its representational activity in Brussels and, through its consultant director, will abide by a code of conduct. The Bar Council maintains a representative office in Brussels in premises which are shared with other European professional bodies representing other bar associations and law societies. The Bar’s Brussels office monitors developments at the EU institutions and makes representations to them regularly on behalf of the Bar of England and Wales and in the public interest. While registration under the ETI register is currently voluntary, the European Commission has made it clear that it expects representative organisations to register and, if they do not, it will treat their representations with the same weight as any individual contribution. The activities of the Bar’s Specialist Bar Associations may also be covered by the ETI and the Bar Council has drawn the attention of those organisations to the desirability of registration.