Features

The arduous process of giving a modern reference compares poorly with “days gone by”

June 14, 2011: Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction - Aristotle

Chambers is the professional embodiment of the truism about waiting hours for the arrival of a bus only to have three arrive together. Weeks pass for senior silks with much thumb twiddling, writing of letters and leisurely walks around the Temple. Solicitors are busily taking instructions in cases whose future appearance is but a small dark cloud on the horizon and no case management crises are looming.

As the TUC marched against public services cuts they were joined by barristers from several chambers including members of Tooks Chambers. Catherine Rayner and Rebecca Chapman asked them why.  

The TUC demonstration against cuts to public services attracted hundreds of thousands of members of the public onto the streets on Saturday 26 March.  Amongst the union banners and banners for voluntary organisations and community groups, was a black banner with gold figure holding a sword and a pair of broken scales in her hands. Justice was on the march. 

Khawar Qureshi QC sets out the law behind the military intervention in Libya and examines its legality

Libya is no stranger to UN sanctions or bombing by NATO Member State warplanes.

On 15 April 1986, in purported retaliation for alleged involvement of the Libyan regime in terrorist attacks, US planes dropped bombs on Libyan territory.
From 1993 to 2003, Libya was subjected to UN Security Council Resolution based economic sanctions as a result of alleged involvement in the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 (the Lockerbie bombing). 

The inaugural Bloomsbury Art Fair is being held this month. Michael Bowes QC and Christine Kings explain the background to the Art Fair and Outer Temple Chambers’ involvement in it.  

Outer Temple Chambers’ personal injury practitioners work regularly with victims of catastrophic injury. They witness the devastating effects of a spinal cord injury and the realities of life in a wheelchair. Many people who find themselves in a wheelchair confront this new future with bravery. A few go on to change the world around them and they are the inspiration for the Bloomsbury Art Fair. 

The Big Voice project is widening participation at the Bar and opening up the legal profession as a career to a broader range of young people. Sarwan Singh explains how. 

Big Voice 2011 is a year long programme of regular evening sessions closely supported by the Supreme Court with the aim of providing legal education to disadvantaged teenagers in an attempt to enhance young people’s understanding of the legal profession, legal access and the court systems in the UK. The project seeks to empower young people who may feel distanced from the world of courts and lawyers and those who take part are divided into three groups, political agency, legal agency and equality and diversity. 

Being a clerk in today’s Bar is very different to the life of Billy Lamb in “Silk”. Paul Martenstyn explores how clerks’ roles and skill sets are evolving . 

“A barrister’s clerk? What exactly do they do?” It’s a question I’ve been asked regularly since I first started clerking in the mid 1990s. Since the escapades of the fictional Senior Clerk Billy Lamb were brought to the small screen in the BBC1 drama series Silk, the question has recently changed to “Are all barrister’s clerks like that?!” Thankfully in my experience they are not, and by some way. 

The coroner’s inquest into the London Bombings of 7 July 2005 is over. Max Hill QC,who represented the Metropolitan Police throughout, gives a firsthand account

“We are here today to resume the inquests into the deaths of the 52 innocent people who were killed as a result of the bombs in London on 7 July 2005. I should like to take a moment to remember them individually. Mr Keith will read out each of their names and then I shall ask all of us who can stand to do so for a minute’s silence in their memory.” 

A look at the distillation process of whisky and how to enjoy the perfect dram at the end of a long day in chambers.  

After a long and arduous working day we all appreciate some “self” time in which to relax, unwind and contemplate. Having a dram of a good single malt whisky must surely be one of the finer accompaniments to these moments. However, if the ‘wee dram’ is consumed too quickly and is not savoured, the full benefit of what we have in the glass will be missed. 

The Neverending Story. Charles Hale and Toby Craig continue to await the Government’s response on legal aid.  

And so, as WW goes to press, still we wait for the Government’s response to its legal aid consultation. It is now four months since the 4,500 or so public responses hit MoJ desks, but the powers that be are still to reach a final conclusion of how they want to take forward their original proposals. There is only so much patient waiting anyone could reasonably expect to do, as supposed publication dates are successively pushed back. To be published alongside a Bill, which is intended to bring forward some of the necessary primary legislation to enact the planned changes, the continuing false dawns have only ensured that we remain in the dark. Harrumph! 

Osama bin Laden was killed in May in a US military operation.  As the dust in Pakistan settles, Ali Naseem Bajwa QC and  Anna Morris consider the issues raised

President Obama’s announcement on 2 May that al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, had been killed in a US military operation in Pakistan was a dramatic and significant moment. The news was widely welcomed; however, once some of the facts of the operation became public, voices of disquiet began to emerge about the state killing of an unarmed person in another sovereign state and the fact that he would now never stand trial for his alleged crimes. Here we will examine those concerns and analyse some of the main issues that are engaged by the killing of bin Laden.