Practice Toolset

The Leaders report on the form and function of the Circuits today: what makes the Circuit structure work, how it represents individual voices and how it meets the profession’s needs  

Dianne Martin and Dr Kate Harrington recount their respective experiences of setting up, and undertaking, one of the Bar’s first part-time pupillages and consider its wider applicability  

Last month Counsel reported on the Snapshot survey of women at the Bar, and the issues it raised. Here, HHJ Deborah Taylor and Rachel Langdale QC explain the Temple Women’s Forum and the events it holds to highlight these issues  

The Temple Women’s Forum was founded to encourage and support women barristers throughout their careers and so increase retention within the profession. 

Only by going through the pupillage application process will students understand their chances of success. Joanne Wicks QC explains why and how applicants should be encouraged to apply for pupillage before undertaking the Bar Professional Training Course  

Most barristers I speak to think that the ratio of Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) places to pupillages is a scandal.  

Adrian Jack follows up on the recruitment crisis in the High Court and reports on recent developments  

The High Court recruitment crisis was highlighted in the July issue of Counsel .  

Are you ready to become a judge? In the first of a series in which Counsel explores how to join the judiciary, HHJ Usha Karu outlines her own tribunals route and offers an insight into the application and selection processes  

When barristers consider applying for judicial appointment they frequently have only one role in mind – Recorder.  

This year the Bar welcomed its first pupils under the Inns of Court’s Pupillage Matched Funding Scheme. Nathalie Lieven QC reports  

The Pupillage Matched Funding Scheme was set up in 2013 and has been very successful in helping numbers of students to qualify as barristers.  

The real picture: Sam Mercer explains what the Bar Council’s recent Snapshot research reveals about the experience of women at the Bar today and its recommendations for supporting long-term careers  

You may have seen some of the rather sensationalist headlines that greeted publication of the Bar Council’s new gender report Snapshot: The Experience of Women at the Self-Employed Bar  in July (The Independent : “Female barristers subjected to shocking levels of rampant sexism, says Bar report”, Law Gazette : “Sexism still rampant in the ‘children’s playground’ of the Bar”).  

More needs to be done to safeguard vulnerable witnesses in the family courts, says Gillian Geddes  

Whatever family practitioners do next, I suggest they make it their highest priority to log on to The Advocate’s Gateway and examine the list of excellent Toolkits on the right of the home page. 

Mrs Justice Vivien Rose talks to Anthony Inglese about her unusual route to the High Court bench  

In the small talk before going in to meet Her Majesty and being made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the newly-appointed Mrs Justice Vivien Rose was asked, “Have you had to come far?”