Features

As party conference season approaches, all the political parties are jockeying for position, as Toby Craig reports  

Later this month, we are expecting the second legal aid consultation, which will quickly absorb the collective minds of the legal profession once again, after an all too brief hiatus. But, of broader interest outside our immediate concerns, Westminster Watchers will be casting their eyes to Glasgow, Brighton and Manchester as party conference season begins again. As the penultimate showcase annual gatherings before the next general election, these are taking on increasing significance as the lines of division between the parties are drawn up, redrafted, polished and set in the run-up to 2015. 

We live in a world of the personality cult where urban rats being represented by thugs will rarely win the day.  

August 12, 2013: “It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you place the blame.” Oscar Wilde  

We are now on a charming Scandinavian cruise. Idyllic, and yet…There is something about a barrister’s life that makes holidays more stressful than work. My own theory is that it is adrenalin withdrawal: so many hormone surges occur during trials. Holidays, on the other hand, are contrast-free and can become just a tiny bit boring. Nevertheless, I was plain exhausted after the trial of Jason Grimble, who, together with Moses Lane, allegedly murdered Claude Allerick, sometime one of Her Majesty’s less popular circuit judges and former member of Gutteridge Chambers. 

Professor Dominic Regan outlines the implications of the newly introduced batch of civil litigation reforms.  

Jackson was just the beginning. The arrival of fixed litigation costs in fast-track injury work, from 31 July 2013, represented another enormous shift and there is plenty more in the pipeline. How does the future look for civil practitioners? It is a common myth that the focus is upon injury. Not so. 

The new BSB Handbook is less prescriptive, focusing more on what the outcome of a rule should be, rather than trying to define how a barrister should act in every situation. Ewen Macleod explains  

The current Code of Conduct, which defines how barristers practise, was first created by the Bar Council almost a decade ago. While many rule changes have been implemented over the course of the last 10 years, its basic underpinning framework remained the same. 

Libyan law student, Aya Rida Luheshi gives an eye witness account of events leading up to the revolution in 2012, the subsequent overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and the emergence of the new Libyan State.  

My name is Aya Rida Luheshi. I am from Libya and I live in Tripoli, the capital. I study at the faculty of law and I am in my third year. My ambition is to be an ambassador for Libya in a European or Asian country. The main subject that I am going to write about in this  article, is how the Revolution affected life and my legal studies at that time. 

Taryn Lee QC outlines the benefits of the Bar Placement Week initiative . 

If you were in court in London or Birmingham in July and your opposite counsel was accompanied by an earnest-looking youth, you may be forgiven for thinking “my goodness, solicitors are getting younger”. In fact, you might have been standing opposite a “mentor barrister” with their Bar Placement Week student. Bar Placement Week is an extraordinary initiative that places high-achieving Year 12 students from low income backgrounds with barristers from a whole host of practice areas across London and Birmingham. 

John Wilson QC examines a ground-breaking Supreme Court ruling on the separate identity of a corporate entity . 

Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd & Others  [2013] UKSC 34; [2013] All ER (D) 90 (Jun), is a landmark case which is of considerable interest to corporate and insolvency lawyers, as well as family lawyers. It will cited for years to come although, in another way perhaps, it merely burnishes the pedestal of the ground-breaking case of Salomon v A. Salomon & Co Ltd  [1897] AC 22. Salomon  established the broad inviolability of the separate identity of a corporate entity. This is something we now take for granted, but it was then a far more radical concept. A. Salomon & Co Ltd was not Mr Salomon, even though he was the only shareholder in the company. They stood side by side as separate legal personalities. Mr Salomon did not stand behind A. Salomon & Co Ltd in the eyes of the law. 

A day in the life of a single mother at the Bar. By Gulshanah Choudhuri  

A typical day would see me crawling from my bed at around 7am, asking the girls to get up. Once the mele of breakfast is sorted, uniforms on, rucksacks packed, I head off to two different schools for my daughters. Rayhanah, aged 5, attends a private school not far from her sister, Ambreen, aged 8 and a half, whose school is a mile down the road. She is bright and sociable and attends a mainstream school, despite her having Down’s Syndrome. She’s very in tune to the day I’m at court or at work as I will have departed from my normal attire of tracksuit bottoms and make-up free face to other end of the spectrum: power suit, make up and jewellery, statement heels. Her reaction is always: “Work Mummy? Beautiful Mummy, like a princess,” followed by: “who pick you up?” 

The theme of this year’s Employed Bar Conference was regulation. Melissa Coutinho takes a look . 

The recent Employed Bar Conference (EBC) was particularly successful this time, according to the feedback from those who attended. That the weather was good, the subject matter topical, speakers varied and the venue, the plush offices of Stephenson Harwood LLP, could not have hurt. The title of the conference: “Regulation: carrot or stick, here to stay” was designed to cover as many practice areas as possible, to reflect the diversity of the Employed Bar. Everyone agreed that at least some of the programme was particularly pertinent to them, but as usual, areas that were unfamiliar to many in their professional lives, nonetheless stimulated interest. 

Allergic reactions to press releases from the Ministry of Justice  

July 12, 2013: “Life could be horrible in the wrong trouser of time.” Terry Pratchett  

Barristers possess certain genetic self-protection, such as the ability to limit outbursts of terror, anger and panic to brief moments. The usual triggers for these uncontrollable emotions are entry into the Royal Courts of Justice (terror), a visit to the clerks’ room (anger) and listening to a client’s explanation of his defence (panic). The attacks are generally best alleviated by going into court and doing something, or going into El Vino’s and drinking something. Additional triggers, often evoking a combination of all three states at once, include communications from HMRC, the Bar Standards Board or the Bank. Drink is the preferred soporific in these cases.