Profession

The Statute Law Society aims to educate us all about the legislative process. Michael Jennings explains

The Statute Law Society (‘SLS’) is a charitable body which since 1968 has been fulfilling its aims of educating members of the legal profession and the public about the legislative process and encouraging improvements in statute law. They have done this through lectures from noted experts and by developing educational projects. 

Much has been said about the legal aid cuts but another critical issue is the eternal rejection of claims by the Legal Services Commission and the crippling financial consequences for barristers waiting for payment. Vanora Bennett investigates. 

Legal aid defence barristers, already struggling to adjust to massive cuts in public funding, are being dealt a double blow by a second, more insidious problem – the worsening difficulty of getting any pay at all from the Legal Services Commission (or the LSC). 

Mr Justice Geoffrey Vos looks at the role of the judiciary in the success of the UK Plc

I want to address a subject that I feel very strongly about. It is the question of what can be done to promote the aspects of British business and professional life that are thriving and, in short, often the envy of other countries. We in the UK are very good at self-criticism. But we are not so good at understanding and defining what we are good at, what others respect us for, and making a study of how we can capitalise on some of these (very many) advantages.  

David Pittaway QC, Chair of the Neuberger Monitoring and Implementation Working Group until the end of 2011, reports on the progress that has been made at the Bar in improving access to the profession.  

Last September I took part in a filmed interview for a BBC2 programme on social mobility within the professions. Its working title was “Who stole the best jobs?” later changed to “Who has the best jobs?” The interview lasted 90 minutes and ended up on the cutting room floor. The content was apparently not sufficiently newsworthy. The actual momentum of change did not meet the perception of privilege. The broadcast programme focused on other professions with the Bar coming out of it relatively unscathed. 

Do we need protection from data protection? asks David Taylor as he warns barristers of their duties under the Data Protection Act 1988 . 

Barristers and their chambers can no longer be complacent about their duties under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), and fines of up to £500,000 are now within the power of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Worse still: if you fight your corner in court, then unlimited fines and up to five years in prison are added to the armoury. If that weren’t incentive enough to keep your data safe, many breaches of the act are also criminal offences of strict liability. 

Colin Smith looks at the issues arising when using digital evidence in court

How often is it now that none of the evidence in a case is digital? That a case has no information from a computer, mobile phone, company server, laptop? Digital evidence is all around us, but why does it often evade the robust challenging it probably deserves?
Any information that has come from digital sources must be treated diligently if the evidence is to prove reliable and strong. This is well known to digital forensic examiners. Being one myself I became very used to being reminded of the principles of forensics early on, which has resulted in me religiously maintaining the forensic standard of my evidence. 

Fiona Jackson reports back from the anniversary dinner held at the House of Lords to celebrate twenty years of the Association of Women Barristers.  

On Tuesday 4th October in the Cholmondeley Room of the House of Lords, our former President, Baroness Hale, hosted a memorable Dinner to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Association of Women Barristers. Another former President, Lady Justice Arden, also joined with the Solicitor General, Lady Butler-Sloss, Baronesses Deech and Scotland, our current President, Mrs. Justice Cox, and members and other distinguished guests in toasting the success of the AWB in its many campaigns. 

2012/13 applications for practising certificates will have to meet new requirements, Oliver Delany explains  

The practising certificate application process is fundamentally changing. Simply paying the fee will no longer suffice. All barristers who require a practising certificate for 2012/13 will be required to follow a new process. 

Asma Nizami looks at the founding of the Free Representation Unit, the UK’s largest single provider of free advocacy.  

Pro bono services are now an established part of the legal profession. The first organised attempt to deliver pro bono legal services from within the legal profession came in 1972 with the founding of the Free Representation Unit (‘FRU’). Then thought to be ‘untraditional and a bit radical’, it is now the largest single provider of free advocacy in the UK, and it will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2012. 

Counsel’s David Wurtzel interviewed Chair of the BSB, Baroness Deech, and Vice Chair, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC soon after their appointment. Three years into the posts, he interviews them again …  

Meeting with Baroness Deech, Chair of the Bar Standards Board, and Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Vice Chair, was an opportunity to take stock as they reached the way point of three years in post. I had interviewed each of them early in 2009. The Bar had just discovered that it had a BSB Chair who understood how to talk to barristers - indeed she still gives a report at every Bar Council meeting. Back in 2009, Baroness Deech had said, “the Bar is going through hard times, many sections are worried about legal aid”. That much has not changed...