Features

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. 

James Potts looks at the growing opportunities for barristers in the Far East and reports on the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators’ International Arbitration Conference, held earlier this year in Malaysia  

For me, the skyscraper cities of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur feel like gateways to the future. Since first coming to South East Asia when my chambers set up an international office in Singapore in early 2013, I have loved the sense of ambition, entrepreneurship and enthusiasm that propels this booming region. 

This year’s Young Bar Conference was always going to be a lively one. Max Hardy reports.   

Joy is a word very little heard in the Inns of Court and Crown Court robing rooms these days and a sentiment still less felt. It took Lord Justice Moses, as so often before, in a barnstorming speech to the Young Bar Conference on Saturday 5 October, to remind us all what being a barrister is really all about. 

Jane Hoyal was named Legal Aid Barrister of the Year at the recent LALY awards. Carol Storer shares the story behind her nomination and also that of the LALY newcomer of the year  

The Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards are now in their eleventh year. At a ceremony at the Globe Theatre on 2 July, the winners of the ten awards were announced. Lord Justice Andrew McFarlane presented the trophies and John Howard, former BBC journalist, compered the evening. 

Martin Canny explains recent case law on CPR 17.4(2) and the interaction with the Latent Damage Act 1986  

Building work on Mr Bala Perampalam Chandra’s ill-fated Manchester hotel development project commenced in October 2001, ran significantly over budget in 2002 and came to an abrupt halt in August 2003 when his company’s financiers called in their loans and appointed receivers. Thereafter, his situation worsened as he was fixed with a significant element of the cost overruns incurred after the original contractors were re-appointed to complete the project, in addition to the sums he had personally guaranteed. 

Robert Francis QC considers what work there is for counsel at public inquiries  

On coming to the Bar most of us did not foresee the need to exercise our newly found skills by pushing post-it notes to another barrister suggesting questions for him or her to ask. Yet that appears to be the fate of many instructed to appear for a core participant at a public inquiry. Another activity at some inquiries seems to be careful self positioning near Counsel to the Inquiry for the benefit of the TV cameras. 

Derek Wood QC assesses the first phase of the Legal Education and Training Review, the June 2013 Report by the appointed Research Team, and examines its value.  

This lengthy Report was commissioned by the front-line regulators of the three main branches of the legal profession – the Institute of Legal Executives, the Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (ILEX, BSB and SRA)–who have established an overall Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) to consider the future of legal education and training in the light of the Legal Services Act 2007. The Report is addressed primarily to those regulators. It is the first phase of the LETR. The LETR itself had been prompted in large measure by remarks circulated by the Chairman of the Legal Services Board that the nation’s legal education and training system is “unfit for purpose” or “fit only for a bygone age”. The Report does not support these statements. The regulators, having received the Report, will consult their members on its findings. The BSB will ask the Bar for its views in due course. 

New Year in the Autumn, and the law of unintended consequences  

September 15, 2013: “To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.” – Daniel Patrick Moynihan  

Some begin their new year in the Autumn; others start on January 1 and a third class commence on April 6. I am not here referring to the Chinese New Year, the Julian Calendar or the religious obsession with new moons, but the Professional New Year, followed by the universities, schools, and others, including the legal profession; the Traditional New Year celebrated with increasingly extravagant displays to warm the hearts of every rolling news channel, somewhat eclipsing those Scottish performances which were viewed by the rest of us with incomprehension and dismay in the sixties and seventies; and the Financial New Year celebrated by the Treasury, HMRC and accountants. 

Daniella Waddoup on reforming the criminal defences of insanity and automatism  

The relationship between crime and mental disorder is a complex and multi-faceted one, leaving criminal justice and mental health systems to grapple with a range of difficult questions. These include, but are not limited to, the following: does mental disorder cause crime? Are mentally disordered offenders less culpable by reason of their condition? Are they criminally responsible at all? What role does the severity of mental disorder play? 

Job title
Senior Clerk, 2KBW 

2KBW is one of the Western Circuit’s leading sets with chambers in London and Portsmouth, specialising in crime, family and civil law. 

You have played an integral part in re-invigorating the profile of your set. How is your chambers reacting to changes at the Criminal Bar?
I started my career at 2KBW in 1988 when chambers was one of a very few successful common law Western Circuit sets. I returned to chambers at the beginning of 2012. From the outset it was clear that chambers had largely veered away from the areas of Family and Civil law and I wanted to focus on returning the set to its “common law” roots.