Features

When is there time to do the actual job?  

Sir Alex Allan, Chair of the QC Selection Panel, offers advice to prospective applicants and four successful candidates from the previous round discuss their lessons learned with Peter Purvis  

Richard Hearnden argues that the recent controversy around social media disclosure failures in criminal cases can be solved by going back to basics  

Power shift? Grania Langdon-Down investigates the changing nature of legal relations as competition, scale of litigation, legal aid cuts and growth of in-house advocates affect how cases are run 

Barristers should be able to practise in a work environment free from any oppressive behaviour, judicial or otherwise, writes Michael Hayton QC who outlines the support offered by Heads of Chambers and Circuit Leaders  

HH John Platt updates readers on the O’Brien/Miller  pension and money claims fallout: the final Act. 

Democracy is undermined if we silence whistleblowing sources in the public sector, argues Lucie Wibberley, who reports on the key issues arising from the trial of prison officer Robert Norman  

Robert Norman, a journalistic source and prison officer, was jailed in 2015 for providing truthful accounts of the difficulties and dangers at HMP Belmarsh to journalist Stephen Moyes, in return for payment by the Daily Mirror and News of the World. 

Junior barristers, now more than ever, face a world which looks increasingly uncertain. Rick Hoyle, Chair of the Young Barristers’ Committee, looks at the worrying trend and what is being done about it  

Whilst the Bar as a whole is now larger than ever before, at a little over 16,000 practising barristers, that trend masks much more disturbing news at the junior end. 

Sally Penni, barrister and mum of three, is trying to do things differently when out of court. Here, the Joint Vice Chair of the Association of Women Barristers and founder of Women in the Law UK shares a typical day in her life and practice  

I wake up at 6am to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. It’s my best source of information. 

Fortune favours the brave, women and younger applicants, finds David Wurtzel, who delves into the details of this year’s list to assess how changed is the face of Silk and the influence of where you practise  

On 26 February 2018, 119 new Queen’s Counsel will be sworn in by the Lord Chancellor in Westminster Hall.