David Wurtzel

David Wurtzel meets Sir Michael Pitt, the successor to David Edmonds as Chairman of the Legal Services Board, and reports back to Counsel on a man the Bar can talk to.

Sir Michael Pitt is such a courteous and welcoming interviewee, it seemed churlish to mention the hostility which many at the Bar feel towards the Legal Services Board, of which he has been Chairman since 1 May. From client letters to QASA, barristers like to say that they are “over-regulated”.

David Wurtzel reviews this year’s Kalisher event, a production of Witness for the Prosecution in Middle Temple Hall in May.

There can be few better causes than the Kalisher Trust, founded in 1996 for the purpose of helping talented students and young barristers with limited means who want to practice in criminal law.

Two recent reports present an intriguing insight into the life of the modern barrister, as David Wurtzel reports.

Published within weeks of one another, the second Barristers’ Working Lives and the annual Bar Barometer give a fascinating picture of who we are and what we think.

That is the trouble with Lord Mansfield: you don’t hear about the guy for decades and suddenly two of him turn up at once. First, the true version in the recent biography (reviewed on page 26) and now the fictional version in the film Belle, in which Tom Wilkinson plays the great Lord Chief Justice with his customary blend of authority and rough but genuine kindness.

It centres round a short period in the life of his great-niece, Dido Belle Murray, the illegitimate daughter of his nephew and of a black slave and who was brought up as part of the family with his legitimate niece, Elizabeth. This being 2014, there is a warning that the film contains “a brief sexual assault and discrimination theme”, a warning indeed that 21st century sensibilities may conflict with 18th century reality.

David Wurtzel reviews PESTS, a play by Vivienne Frantzmann and commissioned by theatre company Clean Break, at the Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre. The play is now on tour.

It was well worth reading the script of PESTS over dinner before seeing the show...

David Wurtzel reviews a fundraising performance of case excerpts, both real and fictional.

Court 1 at the Central Criminal Court, which has seen enough drama in its time, was the suitable venue for ‘Trial and Error’, an evening of excerpts about cases both real and fictional which had taken place at the Old Bailey, some even in the very courtroom. It was devised by HH Judge Peter Rook QC and further scripted and directed by Anthony Arlidge QC, who also provided the narration as the ‘court clerk’. The two performances on 3 and 4 March were staged in aid of the Sheriffs’ and Recorder’s Fund which assists former offenders. Over £17,000 was raised.

Counsel’s consultant editor, David Wurtzel, pays a tribute to the former Lord Chief Justice and looks back at the contribution he has made to the Bar, the law and the country.

It was Hugh Davies QC who summarised Lord Judge’s tenure as Lord Chief Justice as “beyond the brilliance and clarity of his judgments and progressive thinking in the vulnerable witness area, it is his appreciation of the changing culture in how trials should work and the respective roles and duties of judges/counsel. Directions to the jury on rape myths; and understanding of modern crime such as cyber and organised sexual offending against children. He is often more progressive in all this than the counsel who claim to be ‘front line’.”

David Wurtzel talks to Nicholas Lavender QC, incoming Chairman of the Bar, about his new role and his plans for his year in office.

When I asked the 2014 Chairman of the Bar Council, Nicholas Lavender QC, why he wanted to be Chairman, he said, “For me, it was the culmination of a career involved in Bar politics.” He has combined this career with a busy practice in commercial work in which he specialises in actions for and against banks in negligent advice cases. As a former Chairman of the Professional Practice Committee, there can be few who better understand the ethical issues which face the profession. Noting that he is a member of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club and of the MCC, it would be fair to say that both literally and metaphorically, he plays with a straight bat.

In his final Court of Appeal judgment as Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge gave significant guidance to counsel on how to conduct a criminal trial. David Wurtzel explains

At the very moment that the Operation Chalice trial was taking place in Stafford, over in Manchester another trial, equally worrying in terms of advocacy, was underway. R v Farooqi and others [2013] EWCA Crim 1649 concerned a trial of four men charged on a 10-count indictment alleging terrorism and soliciting to murder.

David Wurtzel reviews The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, currently running at the Duchess Theatre.

Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui—written in 1941 but only performed after his death—does not come round very often. This Chichester Festival transfer is all the more welcome as it arrives with a brilliant cast headed by the great Henry Goodman, last seen as the father of The Winslow Boy. It sits happily in the intimate setting of the Duchess Theatre and builds to a terrific climax after a slow start.