News

The Chairman of the Bar is responsible for appointing the two barrister members of the QC Selection Panel. Roy Amlot QC was appointed to the Panel in 2005 as a founder member of the new Selection Process. He has par ticipated in three demanding and highly
successful selection Rounds, with the results of the third Round expected to be announced shor tly. Roy will be leaving the Panel at the end of the third Round, and the purpose of this note is to seek nominations for his successor. The second barrister member, Jean Ritchie QC, will continue to serve on the Panel. 

A number of other changes to the Panel are imminent. The Directors of QCA Ltd will soon be interviewing to select a new Chair of the Panel, to succeed Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss GBE. One of the first tasks of the new Chair will be to select by open competition two new lay members for the Panel. At the same time, the President of the Law Society will be selecting a new solicitor member for the Panel. Taken together, there will be four new members of the nine-person Panel required for the next selection Round, which we hope will be open for applications in March 2009. 

On 19/20 February the Annual Conference of European bar leader takes place again in Vienna. The substantive discussions will this year focus on the theme of “Collective Redress” which is where the European Commission is actively considering a major initiative to improve access to justice for consumers. The Bar Council will be represented by its Chairman and Vice-Chairman. 

Part-time Recorders are not entitled to judicial pensions, the Court of Appeal has held. 

The Association of Women Barristers (AWB) will be celebrating its 18th birthday on 5 March at 6.30pm in Lincoln’s Inn.

A judge has launched legal action against the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) over its system for shortlisting potential judges. 

A thanksgiving ceremony will be held at Middle Temple Hall on 4 March at 6pm for the life and work of Professor Sir Hugh Laddie, who died in November 2008 after a long illness.

THE Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association have voiced their concerns over the Coroners and Justice Bill, which receives its Second Reading in the House of Commons. A briefing sent to parliamentarians set out concerns in a number of key areas including: 

• Homicide and suicide  
• Coroners  
• The Sentencing Council  
• Special measures 
•  Anonymity 

While the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association welcome changes to the law in these areas, they remain concerned that the Bill has failed to address a number of issues which could have profound unintended consequences. 

The International Committee is pleased to announce that its member with responsibility for the CIS region, Rupert d’Cruz, has been appointed Chairman of the Eastern Europe Committee (PECO Committee) of the CCBE (Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe). Ruper t has under taken many initiatives for this Committee, and most recently co-chaired a high-profile conference in Kiev, which brought government, legislature and profession together to consider the establishment of an independent bar council. 

The International Committee member with responsibility for the Middle East, Mark Hoyle, has been appointed Professor for Islamic Law at Leeds University. Mark Hoyle is one of the leading exper ts on Middle Eastern legal systems at the Bar and the Committee is pleased that his work has been recognised in this way. 

The Legal Services Commission has agreed to extend the deadline for consultation responses to the consultation on criminal very high cost cases (VHCCs) to 4 March. 

An in-depth inquiry into the background of entrants to the Bar by Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury in 2007 produced 57 recommendations amounting to a detailed road-map for the promotion of social mobility. The Bar Council is hard at work implementing those proposals with the whole-hearted cooperation of the Inns of Court, which all student barristers join. Lord Neuberger found that, whilst the Bar has an excellent record on race and gender balance and had already taken significant steps toward greater access to the profession, social background and hence familiarity with the professions remained a significant barrier to entry, along with lack of finance. 

The Bar Council's implementation of Lord Neuberger's proposals concentrates on encouraging social mobility at every step in the journey towards a career at the Bar from school, through college and university, to pupillage in chambers and ultimately a seat in chambers. The Chairman of the Bar in 2007, Geoffrey Vos QC, actively promoted the Bar's initiatives, and became Chairman of the Trustees of the Social Mobility Foundation.