Features

Shakespeare’s Globe actors were joined by Members of Gray’s Inn for a special staged reading of Supposes, written in 1556 by George Gascoigne, a fellow Gray’s Inn Member. The rarely played drama returned to the Hall in which it was first performed. James Wallace, the director, and Master Roger Eastman, one of the barrister/actors, reflect on the day.  

The chance to do the very first play written in English prose in the actual building where it was first performed doesn’t come around too often. That play, Supposes, is: “A Comedy written in the Italian tongue by Ludovico Ariosto, Englished by George Gascoigne of The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, Esquire, and there presented.” It was acted by lawyers in 1566 in the same Hall to which, 447 years later on 3 November 2013, Shakespeare’s Globe brought its Read Not Dead on the road project. Joining the professional actors were four current Gray’s members, who bravely took the stage at 3pm for a fully staged script-in-hand performance after only beginning rehearsals at 10am. 

Job title 

Barrister, Thomas Bingham Chambers 

Thomas Bingham Chambers is a newly formed common law set specialising in civil litigation, crime, family and regulatory matters. 

Expect the Unexpected 

 One of the great joys of my life is returning home after a hard day’s gossiping in Chambers: shoes off, feet on the stool and a stiff gin and tonic. Or should I say “some gin with tonic”?  

A friend of mine at university once over-reached himself by taking out a girl called Jane, whose family was from the deepest Shires: the sort that disdains titles, never double-barrels and considers the Royal Family to be parvenus. He was invited for a weekend. Jane later told him in the Kardomah Café (she was a girl of simple tastes) that, after his departure, her mother had listed in order the ten social solecisms of his visit. Top of the list was that he had asked for “a gin and tonic” and not “some gin with tonic”. How we laughed when he told us until I next ordered a combination drink and heard myself asking for some whisky with soda.  

In this article David Murphy reviews the principal risks that collateralisation brings both to the parties involved and to the financial system as a whole.  

Collateral has a central role in the post-crisis financial system. Unsecured interbank markets have declined, so secured funding transactions whether private or with central banks have become the most important conduit of liquidity to the financial system. At the same time, collateral became a key feature of the post-crisis regulatory reforms: it will be mandatory for many bilateral OTC derivatives and is already required for centrally cleared transactions. 

On 28 October 2013 a trial began in Court 12 of the Central Criminal Court concerning the conduct of certain members of the British press. Two days later, the Privy Council approved a royal charter on press regulation.  

Last autumn two senior judges gave speeches concerning the relationship between law and morality, thus reigniting the embers of a debate which has flared up repeatedly over the last two centuries.  

A reflection on the way life for a barrister on the circuits used to be. 

Listening to (Lord) Jeremy Hutchinson on Desert Island Discs led me to recall life at independent criminal bar at its best. Anyone charged with a serious offence could walk into a High Street firm and any High Street firm could call on the services of Jeremy. The public money involved was well spent and never really questioned. Good quality advocates got to the real points in a case and addressed them directly. Time was saved. Justice is always done when high quality barristers oppose each other.  

In November 2012, Lord Sumption observed that “The judiciary is recruited from a pool of highly educated and experienced legal practitioners. This pool is itself dominated by white males”. Coinciding with a progress report, his view was that diversity in the judiciary could take 50 years so, how was 2013 for women in the law … ? 

Many employers bemoan the employability gap between education and work. Sarah Thwaites talks about one initiative to help bridge the gap in the legal sector.  

With youth unemployment still hovering just under the one million mark, we all have a role to play in ensuring we don’t leave the next generation behind. 

Andrew Bruce discusses the recent decision in Walker & Scott v Burton & Bamford relating to rectification of the Land Register.  

Ireby (population 60) is a tiny village in Lancashire. It is situated at the highest point in Lancashire and close to the county boundary with West Yorkshire. For the past eight years it has been the site of “a rather old fashioned un-neighbourly dispute with some unusual feudal bits and some land registration bits tacked on”. This dispute culminated in the Court of Appeal’s decision in Walker & Scott v Burton & Bamford [2013] EWCA Civ 1228, [2013] All ER (D) 146 (Oct) on 14 October 2013. This article considers the land registration issues associated with the dispute.