Features

Toby Craig and Charles Hale analyse the recent reshuffle and its implications for the Bar 

Shuffling the deck

Cecil Parkinson once observed, probably with a fair degree of personal experience in mind, that “in politics, you get what you deserve, rather than what you want”. Both, it must be said, are relative concepts. But when David Cameron finally undertook his first major reshuffle, two and a half years into the Coalition Government, the conflict between desire and desert would have struck a number of disappointed Parliamentarians. The problem for many MPs is an inability to distinguish between what they want and what they deserve. Politics is necessarily a fairly ego-driven business and never more so than when a reshuffle comes around. 

Jane Treleaven and Sa’ad Hossain report on the International Council of Advocates and Barristers’ advocacy-themed World Bar Conference.  

The International Council of Advocates and Barristers arranges a World Bar Conference every two years. This year’s conference was devoted to the theme of advocacy itself with participation from skilled and superlative advocates from around the world. 

Whether preparing for a case or a wedding, the best laid plans... 

September 9, 2012: “People only see what they are prepared to see.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Human beings seemingly spend a vast proportion of their lives preparing for things, only to find that when the event occurs they are, in fact, wholly unprepared. It is a perpetual theme of the Criminal Procedure Rules that we are all to spend endless amounts of time before a trial getting prepared, but which of us has ever arrived at court to find our opponents and co-counsel beaming and ready to go, our clients happy that they have told us all we need to know and a judge in command of the situation, only waiting to fire the starting gun? You may get some of it. You never get all of it. In fact, the more the case might seem to be suitable for such careful forethought, the more that chaos will intrude: the last-minute service of evidence, the lay client who starts sending you notes for the first time half-way through the initial witness, people who turn up to court with some file that has never previously seen the light of the day from which crucial nuggets fly forth – or not as the case may be.

Job title - Silk. Devereux Chambers

Devereux Chambers, a civil and commercial set, specialises in insurance and reinsurance, professional negligence, tax, employment law, telecommunications, finance, energy, sport, education, personal injury, clinical negligence and health and safety law

You have been chosen to advise the Treasury Committee in an investigation surrounding the Libor scandal. What exactly is your role?

I have been advising the Treasury Committee on the existing regulatory framework, and in particular, the civil and criminal enforcement aspects. Also, I have been offering some assistance on the handling of evidence presented to the Committee. I had better not say anymore – it would breach legal privilege! 

This year’s conference will be focusing on the Bar’s need to adapt to its changing environment. Alison Padfield, Bar Conference Chairman, previews the event and its speakers... 

The Bar Conference, which will take place on Saturday, November 10th, is the largest event in the Bar’s calendar and provides an opportunity for all parts of the Bar to come together and discuss current issues of importance to the profession. This year’s theme is The Modern Bar – Accessible, Adaptable and Relevant. We will again be at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London, but with a difference – this year, all of the conference activities take place in the same area, thus dispensing with the need to migrate from one wing of the hotel to the other between sessions. 

BRINGING JUSTICE HOME

Kate Aubrey-Johnson provides an overview of civil mediation today 

In the past year, mediation was attempted in nearly 12,000 small claims and an estimated 8,000 fast and multi track cases with settlement rates of 68-90% (Small Claims Mediation Service Annual Report, HMCTS, 2011/12; CDER Fifth Mediation Audit May 2012). This is in addition to the many potential civil disputes being resolved using community mediation and mediation schemes. Members of the public and businesses, organisations and public bodies who may otherwise turn to the courts to protect and enforce their rights are discovering that mediation can offer an alternative process which is both empowering for clients and reaches creative solutions not achievable through a contested court hearing. 

Privacy and libel law: the clash with press freedom
Paul Tweed
ISBN: 978 1 84766 902 5
May 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury Professional
Price: £19.99

Privacy injunctions and the media: a practice manual
Iain Goldrein QC
ISBN: 9781849462846
April 2012
Publisher: Hart Publishing
Price: £125.00 

2012 brings forth two new books which share a concern with the relationship between individual privacy and the press, a relationship which (to adapt HL Mencken) is broadly akin to that between lamppost and dog. They are Paul Tweed’s Privacy and libel law: the clash with press freedom (Bloomsbury Professional) and Iain Goldrein QC’s Privacy injunctions and the media: a practice manual (Hart).  

The Legal Services Board will not baulk as it strives to drive the legal services market forward and reinforce the regulatory objectives, says LSB chairman, David Edmonds 

Counsel has invited me to reflect on the Legal Services Board’s (LSB’s) first three years, in the context of the Ministry of Justice’s recent triennial review of the LSB and Office for Legal Complaints.  In doing so, I was provoked to think about how the Bar, represented by the Bar Council, has dealt with the post-Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA 2007) landscape. 

Nick Avis outlines the possible benefits and drawbacks to barristers of practising through a limited company 

There has been a lot of discussion around the future of the Bar and the changes that have emanated from the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA 2007). Some aspects of these changes are dependent on the regulation of entities offering certain legal services.  The Bar Standards Board (BSB) recently issued a further consultation document on the subject of entity regulation. The consultation closed on 29 June.  It is understood that the BSB intends to put structures in place so that it can regulate: 

A nightmare in the woods; and time to give the publicly funded legal profession a sporting chance
 
August 13, 2012: “The only athletic sport I ever mastered was backgammon”
Douglas William Jerrold.

Filled with the joy of the Olympics, the hopeful young athletes from all over the world competing for honour and pride, I felt young again. Anthony Joshua, who won Great Britain’s final medal, a gold one, in boxing said he drew inspiration from King Leonidas, of “300 Spartans” fame. Whilst Leonidas lost his life and his entire force, his bravery became a rallying point for Greek success. I may be doing the commentator who was interviewing young Mr Joshua a disservice, but it sounded as though he just thought the boxer was rambling after a heavy match. Those of us who were forced to undergo a classical education knew otherwise.