News

IN the early evening of Friday 12 December, a break-in occurred at the Holborn offices of the Bar Council, which also houses its regulatory arm, the Bar Standards Board. 

The break-in was discovered on 13 December and police were on the scene on the same day. An investigation is underway. The Bar Council has confirmed that a laptop and four computer hard-drives were taken. 

All of the data stolen is held under two or three levels of security. The data is covered by a high level of protection and cannot be accessed readily. As an Approved Regulator, and a responsible authority for data, the Bar Council takes its data protection responsibilities seriously, and has adopted a precautionary approach. The protected data stolen is : 

The Bar Council has produced a parliamentary briefing on the Policing and Crime Bill 2009, which received its second Commons reading last month.

The Bar Council has set up a working group to examine the Coroners and Justice Bill 2009, published last month.

In December, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Commission to issue a proposal on the recognition of authentic acts as defined in the ECJ case law. The legal profession was lobbying for something wider in scope, offering the same status to documents of equivalent legal effect under their national laws. The Commission will issue a Green Paper before the end of 2009, and has indicted that that consultation would cover “authentic acts and possibly other instruments”. 

At the end of 2008, the Council definitively adopted 5 important Framework Decisions, all long-standing proposals, and some of which
have been in the works for several years: 

• on combating racism and xenophobia;  
• on the protection of personal data processed in the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters;  
• on mutual recognition in probation matters;  
• amending the definition of terrorism to include 3 new offences; and 
• on mutual recognition of judgments in criminal matters. 

Member States have 2 or 3 years, as defined in the specific FD, to comply. 

Join Clive Anderson and Rachel Weisz (tbc) in a celebrity quiz night in aid of charity Protimos, providing access to law for communities in the developing world. To be held on 18 February at the Law Society, £1,000 per team of four. See www.protimos.org.

Sir Duncan Nichol CBE’s review into the system for appointing QCs has been submitted and is now being considered by the Bar Council and Law Society. 

THE Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards saw two outstanding publicly-funded practitioners scoop the two awards, for Legal Aid Barrister of the Year and Young Legal Aid Barrister of the Year. Cherie Booth QC presented the awards at a ceremony which saw the best of the publicly-funded Bar celebrated by their peers. The Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Award, which was sponsored by the Bar Council, went to Robert Latham, of Doughty Street Chambers. Robert’s nomination was supported by a number of leading members of the legal profession including Lord Justice Sedley; Keir Starmer QC; and Jan Luba QC, last year’s winner of this award. Robert’s 30 year career at the Bar has seen him lead the way in applying the Disability Discrimination Act to housing; he is a leading authority on the
housing allocations and homelessness aspects of the 1996 Housing Act; he has been at the forefront of litigation about tolerated trespassers. Robert is also a prolific writer and educator and, over the years, has trained and acted as mentor to dozens of other housing lawyers. 

The Young Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Award, sponsored by Irwin Mitchell, was presented to Felicity Williams, of 6 King’s Bench Walk in London. Felicity was a founder of the Young Legal Aid Lawyers group and has been its vice chair since she was a trainee barrister. She has devoted significant time to campaigning and lobbying on behalf of the junior, publiclyfunded Bar, and has managed to combine this with a successful criminal practice. Described by those she has worked with as ‘dynamic, energetic and with a mature grasp of the issues and politics’. 

Barristers are reminded that the deadline for responses to the BSB’s consultation paper on legal disciplinary practices and partnerships of barristers is 1 March 2009. This is an important issue which affects the regulation of barristers and you are encouraged to reply. A copy of the consultation paper along with other useful information on the Act can be found in the Legal Services Act section of the Standards and Guidance pages of the BSB website (www.barstandardsboard.org.uk). 

The infamous Brussels I regulation on jurisdiction in contractual matters is overdue for its 5-year review. The Commission is expected to issue a consultation paper on the subject in late Spring 2009. The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee organised in mid- January, a hearing in anticipation of the review at which Alexander Layton QC spoke on behalf of the Bar. The hearing focussed on the recent, controversial, case-law of the Court of Justice; and covered topics including party autonomy; choice of court clauses; lis pendens; arbitration agreements; “torpedo” actions; anti-suit injunctions and forum non conveniens