Features

Theatre company Clean Break presented  Billy the Girl, written by Katie Hims, directed by Lucy Morrison and played at Soho Theatre from 29 October to 24 November. Nigel Pascoe QC reviews the play for  Counsel. 

Good research is rarely wasted. True certainly for prize winning playwright Katie Hims, having tutored in womens’ prisons in drama and completely absorbed the language. In this haunting piece, she reproduces it to perfection. Insecurity, hope and always the fear of rejection in the air, she set out nevertheless to achieve, quite deliberately, a happy ending. The result is a compelling and uplifting quasi-comedy, adding effortlessly to the excellent reputation that Clean Break has gained. For this is purposeful theatre, helping female offenders develop their potential through drama. But absent entirely from the play is any sense of polemic messaging. The picture is true because the playwright has listened and allowed us with considerable skill both to learn and to share. It is some achievement. 

Job title
Senior Clerk, 20 Essex Street 

20 Essex Street is a leading international set of commercial barristers’ chambers in London and Singapore specialising in international arbitration, commercial, EU, competition, insolvency and public international law disputes. 

What have been some of the highlights of your career?
I am fortunate there have been more than a few. Being appointed Joint Senior Clerk here in ’96 was a proud day. I started clerking in ’76 in what is now Henderson Chambers for 8 years, then spent 4 years at Blackstone Chambers. I’ve been at 20 Essex Street since ’88. I was elected Chairman of the IBC in March this year, although it should be noted I was unopposed. However, my proudest moment is undoubtedly being instrumental in setting up the UK’s first fully staffed and full-time international chambers in Maxwell Chambers, Singapore in October 2009; I had been working on this behind the scenes since 2007. Meeting representatives from MinLaw and the AG’s Department in Singapore was great fun and a real eye-opener in discussing and planning with them for the future and how to succeed. That initiative has been a great success for 20 Essex Street. 

This year’s Bar Conference was held on 2 November 2013 at Westminster Park Plaza.  Counsel reports back.  

Just a stone’s throw from the Palace of Westminster, over 550 barristers, clerks, practice managers, law students, journalists and interested observers gathered to take stock of a frenetic, and often bruising, year for the profession. But they also gathered to learn and discuss how to face up to the challenges of the future. 

A lively opening keynote session featured a welcome from Conference Chairman, Saba Naqshbandi, the Chairman of the Bar’s address and a keynote speech from one of the leading advocates of his generation, and polymath, Lord Pannick QC. 

How does a drug addict who yearns to change their life around do so? HH Michael Baker QC explains one police force’s pioneering scheme.  

Drug addicts do not have an easy life. Class A drugs do not come cheap. Purloined property can only be fenced for a fraction of its value. Thousands of pounds worth of goods may have to be burgled or otherwise nefariously acquired each week in order to feed a Class A drug habit. And the addict is constantly looking over his shoulder, suspicious, insecure and afraid. Not surprisingly many addicts yearn for a quieter, easier and better life. In 2006 Hertfordshire Police pioneered an interviewing technique based on this desire for a changed way of life. By befriending suitable addicts and respecting their aspirations they persuaded them to admit to all their past offending in a series of drive-rounds and interviews. So effective was this that, by the time they got to court, they often had scores – sometimes several hundreds – of offences waiting to be taken into consideration. 

John Battle, ITN’s Head of Compliance, on the new rules, the background to the changes, and what the future holds.  

This legal term sees a significant turning point for our legal system; televising of proceedings in the Court of Appeal begins. Although Supreme Court judgments can already be viewed on a dedicated YouTube channel, and live proceedings seen on a Sky News website, this is the first time that the public has seen footage of the Court of Appeal. It could open the door, in due course, to extending filming to trial courts. 

John Cammegh examines how the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal failed a nation  

There is a sense of foreboding in Bangladesh: in January the country will go to the polls amidst rising civil disorder. The government is nervous: a series of crackdowns on opposition groups, crippling strikes and industrial tragedies, epitomizing the traditional disregard of workers’ rights and safety, mean the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) is likely to regain power. In fact no incumbent government has ever been returned to power in Bangladesh, where short term score settling has always triumphed over consensual change. 

Four years on from its inception, the Supreme Court has evolved considerably. Alan Paterson examines its way of operating and how it contrasts with that of its predecessor, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords  

In October the Supreme Court embarked on its fifth year as the UK’s top court. There has been a real changing of the guard since it began in October 2009. The new President and Deputy President are flanked by 10 Justices, only three of whom formerly served on the Appellate Committees of the House of Lords. This is an indication of the impact that a mandatory retirement age can have on an appellate court, which starkly contrasts with the position on the US Supreme Court where the turnover of Justices is much slower. Nevertheless for the first time since its inception the UK Court can look forward to a period of three years or so of stability in its membership. Stability makes a difference not just to issues that nobody notices such as room changes in the court – and yes, geography matters in final appellate courts more than the court watchers of the past have been aware – but to issues that they do, such as attitudes to single majority judgments, dissents and concurrences – in short, team-working. Here there has been a sea change from the Bingham era of the House of Lords. The intellectual weight of that Court – the strongest in the House of Lords in recent times – emanated from the individual strengths of its members. This meant that, unlike the English Court of Appeal (then and now), the House of Lords in its last decade was only intermittently collegial, in the technical sense of working together as a team. For Lord Bingham and most of his colleagues opinion writing, concurrences and dissents were largely a matter of individual preference. 

Bill Bowring explains the work and history of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre and encourages a new generation  of barristers to get involved  

The European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) is celebrating its tenth anniversary, with recent events in Moscow and in London. EHRAC was founded in 2003 by a partnership of London Metropolitan University, the Bar Human Rights Committee, and the Russian NGO “Memorial”. Memorial was founded in 1989 in the USSR as the All-Union Voluntary Historical and Educational Society “Memorial”, as the result of an initiative in 1987 to establish a monument in Moscow to the victims of Stalinist repression. Memorial’s main focus has been (and remains) the accurate documentation and remembrance of victims of repression in the USSR and in today’s Russia. 

Dreams of an international legal career are shattered  

November 5, 2013: “Treason doth never prosper. What’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it ‘treason’” – Sir John Harrington 

The lingering taste of delicious fresh pasta, seasoned with freshly cracked black pepper, fresh herbs, garlic and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, eaten to the accompaniment of a mandolin played by a one-legged Roman beggar, is receding apace. Rome. What a few days that was. After sobering up Paddy Corkhill sufficiently to travel by air, we arrived in the Eternal City and, following a shower, were motored to a delightful restaurant where three men were waiting for us.