Practice Toolset

Fraser Coxhill reports from this year’s competition final.  

On Saturday 28 March 2009 the normally hushed halls of the Central Criminal Court in London were taken over by more than 200 young people perfecting speeches, tactics and costumes. This was the final of the Bar National Mock Trial Competition run by the Citizenship Foundation in partnership with the Bar Council, Faculty of Advocates, the Bar Council of Northern Ireland, the Inns of Court and the Circuits. The annual competition attracts 160 schools and 2,000 young people from all over the UK. It provides 15–18-year-olds from state secondary schools and further education colleges with an opportunity to experience the profession and helps to demystify the criminal justice system by allowing participants to play the roles of advocates, witnesses, jurors and court staff. 

How can candidates for silk, and their assessors, maximise their chances of success? Roy Amlot QC, outgoing member of the QC Selection Panel, gives an insider’s view.  

The accolade of silk is of great value. As a mark of excellence for all advocates—open to the self-employed Bar, employed Bar and solicitors alike—it enables the public and the professions to identify the leaders in the law and is a quality standard for junior practitioners to aspire to, either in its own right or as a stepping stone to the Bench. Furthermore, it is a mark of considerable importance on the international stage and as such is widely acclaimed all over the world. 

A shopping basket of proposals, gathered without any particularly logical reason—John Cooper introduces the Coroners and Justice Bill 

Have lawyers got what it takes to do policy jobs? Yes, says Emma Hopkins 

Were Judge Judge and Counsell of Counsel always destined to become lawyers, asks Christina Michalos?  

Some parents believe that choosing a child’s name is a matter of life and death. But it may be even more important than that. It could cause your child to become a lawyer—or at least that is what proponents of nominative determinism would have you believe. 

How to ensure the right people, with the right experience, apply at the right time for the correct level of judicial post? Judge David Pearl explains . 

This month, candidates will sit the qualifying test for 128 vacancies for Crime and Family Recorders on the South East Circuit. The advertisements attracted almost 1,000 candidates, the largest number of applicants for any Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) exercise in its three-year history. Across the board, judicial posts are attracting large numbers of candidates. In the first six months of this financial year, for example, the JAC received more applications than in the whole of last year. The rate of applicants to places (8:1) for this Recorder exercise is dwarfed by the 30:1 ratio when 800 candidates applied for 26 Deputy District Judge (Magistrates’ Court) posts last summer. 

No mega-set devotee, Andrew Mitchell QC argues that compact is probably the best chambers’ format in the world.  

Bespoke. Tailored. Fitted. Snug. A proper fit is much admired. Big and baggy? Large and flabby? Not so much. As with life in general, so I think, with life at the Bar. Whilst ever larger sets of chambers appear to some observers to be in vogue, for my part I think the case for the compact is stronger and more conducive to the real referral profession that we should remain. 

Philip Mott QC answers your questions on the new advocate assesment scheme.  

One of Lord Carter’s legal aid review recommendations was that a system of quality monitoring should be set up for advocates. He hoped that the scheme for publicly funded criminal advocates would be in place by the time the new graduated fee scheme was implemented. Some saw this as a “trade off” for the increased level of graduated fees, which came into effect at the end of April 2007. 

By the time a barrister first addresses the bench, he or she could have debts of £60,000. Alexander Learmonth considers the young Bar’s debt problem.  

Lord Neuberger’s Entry to the Bar working group assumed that students could leave university as much as £30,000 in debt. The average, according to the PUSH student debt survey (see www.push.co.uk), is £14,452 for students in England, increasing by about 10% per year. The cost of the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) year was estimated at a further £25,000. That’s a fair estimate: some providers are now charging as much as £14,495 for the year, which includes the Bar Standards Board’s validation fee of £395. 

Andrew Mitchell QC explains the work of the Bar Council’s Representation and Policy Secretariat—and what you get for your Members’ Services Fee.  

Few professions have such a direct effect on society as ours, yet for many of us the last few years have felt like an assault course. Those who work at the publicly funded Bar feel squeezed on fees as Government seeks to cut the cost of providing access to justice (inevitably hitting the most vulnerable members of society); while barristers are criticised in the press for the reward they receive for their skill and industry.