Bon Vivant

A yearning for the good old days when murder trials could be wrapped up in a fortnight and juries usually came to a verdict in a day

April 15, 2012: “Did you like her?” “Did I like her?” “Yes, that is the question.”                       
The opening of Frederick  Seddon’s cross-examination by Sir Rufus Issacs KC

Why do criminal trials take so long nowadays? The thought struck me as I re-read the trial of Frederick Seddon in Notable British Trials, – a wonderful series that some enterprising soul should resurrect, save that each major trial would now need 15 volumes.

Natalia Rymaszewska and Julia Jones explain the benefits of the sponsored  walks being undertaken by lawyers all over the country 

The London Legal Walk is a superb opportunity to come together with fellow lawyers from across the whole profession, and to do so for a very deserving cause. I am looking forward to seeing many more chambers and in-house counsel teams joining us for this year’s walk in support of the great work of our pro bono and legal advice agencies 
Dominic Grieve QC MP, Attorney General  

Paul Marshall reflects on a recent conversation between Channel 4’s Jon Snow and law reporter turned novelist, Elenor Dymott. 

Easter is not a bad time to recall the question Pontius Pilate is reported as having asked: ‘’what is truth?”. Jesting Pilate would not stay for an answer, says Francis Bacon. It is not clear whether Pilate’s reluctance to enter into further debate on the question was attributable more to judicial impatience or intellectual humility. The narrower issue of truth as to disputed fact, that the trial process is believed to facilitate, may not be straightforward. Lord Justice Browne commented: 

Toby Craig prepares for the London Marathon and asks members of the Bar also taking part how they have fitted training around their busy working lives. 

As a child, I spent more than one April morning on the Embankment cheering my dad through another of his five London Marathons. Last year, after a rather long hiatus, I was a spectator once again, this time watching my older brother compete. It’s fair to say that joggers run in my family.  This year, the gauntlet well and truly laid down, it’s finally my turn to tackle the daunting 26.2 miles of the most famous marathon course in the world. A subjective view perhaps, but as far as I’m concerned, New York, Chicago, Berlin and even Marathon to Athens itself have their attractions, but nothing beats London. 

A look at the battle tactics and power struggles that have governed the reigns of Heads of Chambers since the beginning of time...

March 11, 2012: “Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” - Niccolo Machiavelli
 
March is the season of our Annual General Meeting. In times gone by this was a rather jolly affair in which we took rooms at leading London hotels and had a good old natter, followed by a decent lunch. There has, however, been a tendency to slum it in recent times. We have started hiring conference rooms with decidedly inferior cuisine or pokey little rooms in the Inns. However, the siting of this year’s meeting at a church hall in Hackney represented a new phase in our existence.

Regret at the loss of beauty, simplicity and mystery from language and the unstoppable spread of “lifeless modern civic terminology”

St. Valentine’s Day, 2012: To assume is to presume” Jude Morgan, Indiscretion.

However classless society becomes, you never turn down an invitation from a High Court judge. That covering of scarlet, flashed with white fur and black scarf, still thrills the senses in a way sadly.not achieved by circuit purple. The difference is that the original robes evolved from real costumes worn in a genuine context when the House of Plantaganet was in its final flower. You cannot create uniforms any more than you can create cities...hence Milton Keynes.

Adrian Eissa and Ruth Barber
ISBN: 978 1 84766 707 6. September 2011
Publisher: Bloomsbury Professional. Price: £75

Even barristers of the very near future will look back with astonishment that their predecessors were still, in the 21st century, laden with kilos of textbooks as they set off for court in the morning.  Any exceptionally diligent criminal practitioner embarking for a confiscation hearing faces the Herculean prospect of dragging Archbold 2012 with supplement and Mitchell, Taylor and Talbot on Confiscation and Proceeds of Crime behind them.  Punishment not just for the muscles but also for the bank balance with RRPs of £455 and £342 respectively. 

January 10, 2012: “I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.” - Mr Hardcastle in Oliver Goldsmith’s  She Stoops to Conquer.

Anger that the Government is kicking the public Bar when it is already down; and the New Year doesn’t feel happy for long

William Byfield, Gutteridge Chambers : A sad acknowledgement that although the problem of late payment is not a new one, this time round the effects are more acute than ever

December 1, 2011: “A man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten” - Oscar Wilde.

Chasing fees is a perennial problem. I remember a dinner party in the early nineties at the house of an old university friend, also at the Bar and now an eminent civil practitioner and fellow Head of Chambers. At the time we were both going through what might loosely be called a cash-flow crisis. After a wonderful dinner cooked by his most glamorous and exotic wife, talk turned to the irritations of life.

Child trafficking continues. Felicity Gerry reviews “Not My Life”, a film exposing this brutal world and hoping to bring about change. 

Not My Life is a brutal documentary about modern day slavery. It exposes the reality of human trafficking across continents, asks why such activities take place and what can be done. The international premiere took place at Curzon Mayfair on Thursday 20th October 2011 and the full documentary was shown on CNN International without ad breaks over the following weekend. Oscar-nominated director Robert Bilheimer hopes that the film can be a catalyst for change, putting the plight of the world’s youth in the forefront of the public consciousness.