Practice Toolset

The diversity of the employed Bar  

A popular misconception when considering the employed Bar is assuming that roles are either in a solicitor’s firm or in the Government Legal Service or CPS. Dispelling this myth, Melissa Coutinho continues her series of 60 second interviews which demonstrate the diversity of work that employed lawyers undertake 

Andrew Granville Stafford considers the attractions, the pitfalls and the mechanics of public access work  

Among my first public access clients were an African prince, a 70s prog rock star and the former managing clerk of a large solicitor’s firm whose preferred method of payment was an envelope containing £50 notes.  

Simon Sugar explains how, post-LASPO, one of the challenges for the Bar is how to devise a cost-effective structure for the provision of public access services to meet the increasing demand from both “public” and “commercial” litigants-in-person  

“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie” - All’s Well That Ends Well  

Entrepreneurship and collaboration: Stephen Ward explains why “innovative” thinking around public access isn’t the real starting point  

I have been to far too many conferences lately that urge legal professionals – particularly the Bar – to be “innovative” in order to survive in the modern legal world.  

Amanda de Winter explains her route to setting up a high-street direct access practice and argues that a full litigation practice offers the junior Bar a viable future  

Is direct access a real alternative to traditional methods of practice? My answer is a resounding yes, if you are able to offer a full litigation service to your client. 

Paul Mosson explains the background to BARCO, its modus operandi and its role within the growing area of public access  

First launched to the Bar in April 2013, BARCO was established to provide a unique solution for handling client money that allowed the Bar Standards Board (BSB) to uphold its prohibition on barristers and BSB regulated entities holding client money themselves.  

Escrow has quickly become an essential part of chambers’ public access offering. Senior clerk and practice manager, Mike Ryan, explains  

In the past few years, chambers has witnessed a significant growth in public access work.  

Yuri Rapoport considers how barristers can assure revenue in low to middle quantum cases, despite the “big squeeze” on legal funding  

Two years since the latest round of legal aid cuts, the soaring number of unrepresented cases being heard in the courts have all but crushed the Government’s hopes of people pursuing less expensive and less confrontational means of settling disputes.  

Debate Mate mentors Danielle Manson and Monica Savic-Jabrow explain how the tool of debate is being used to transform the lives of children  

The power of the public speaker is one with which we’re all too familiar.  

Alice Carse and Kannon Shanmugam consider what can be done to address the growing skills gap between junior and senior lawyers in commercial litigation, on both sides of the Atlantic  

One of the most pressing issues facing the commercial Bar today is the lack of opportunities for junior practitioners to develop the skills needed to lead the types of large, complex cases that dominate modern commercial litigation.