News

Pupils who are issued with provisional practising certificates from 1 September 2013 must sign off their pupillage within 30 days or will no longer be authorised to undertake reserved legal activities. 

Profession
Regulators should be led by lay chairs because their “mindset can still be too closely tied to, and concerned with, the individual branches of the profession”, despite the physical separation of their representative and regulatory arms, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has claimed. 

Profession
Permission has been granted by the High Court for judicial review to proceed of the quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA), but the war of words over the issue of costs has escalated before the substantive hearing begins. 

On the evening of 6 November, we will be running a networking and information event for chambers’ equality and diversity officers, to be held at Holborn Bars. The event will explore the new equality rules and share best practice. 

Legal aid
Criminal barristers will not enter into new very high cost case (VHCC) contracts, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has announced, as the first step in a “lawful, proportionate and clear” strategy for direct action against legal aid fee cuts. 

Court
A Crown Court judge has called the niqab the “elephant in the courtroom” and has urged Parliament to give a definitive statement on the issue. 

Commission Conference on “A Single Market for Lawyers”
On 28 October, DG Internal Market of the European Commission is hosting a major conference for lawyers in the EU which will focus on the issues raised in / by the recent study (by the University of Maastricht and Panteia) on the operation of the EU legal framework applicable to lawyers, including the Establishment and Services directives. Further information, including on registration, is available at: http://bit.ly/1elSpTA. For the Panteia study on the ”Evaluation of the Legal Framework for the Free Movement of Lawyers“, see: http://bit.ly/19ZOOLt. 

Profession
The Bar Standards Board is pressing ahead with preparatory steps for the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), despite a judicial review launched against the scheme last month. 

From 6 January 2014 the Bar should refer to a new Handbook for rules and guidance on their conduct as barristers. 

Family
The President of the Family Division of the High Court has renewed his call for greater transparency in the family courts, after rejecting a local authority’s application for a reporting restriction order.