Practice Toolset

Anthony Inglese explains how chambers could benefit from the lens of a critical friend.  

It would be good for chambers, and also for the reputation of the Bar, if some forward-thinking sets would take the lead in each appointing a couple of “critical friends” on a part-time basis to sit on their most significant committees and be part of their governance. 

You can “change, adapt and thrive” as a barrister-led, BSB-regulated entity under a new regime launching this January, suggests Oliver Hanmer.  

It is something of a cliché to use the words “a rapidly changing profession”; to describe the “ever-evolving environment” in which the Bar operates; to note that the legal services market is “undergoing unprecedented change”, as if few had noticed. 

The Young Bar conference took place on 18 October.  

YBC Chairman, Max Hardy, reports back. 

As part of the July 14 reshuffle, the then Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC was replaced.  

The post went to criminal barrister and Conservative MP Jeremy Wright, who talks to Chris McWatters about his new role. 

The Bar Council needs not only to support the Bar but also to help it be understood by and to reflect the society it serves.   

Stephen Crowne talks to Rupert Jones about his role as Bar Council Chief Executive. 

As her tenure comes to an end, Baroness Deech reflects upon her six years as Chair of the Bar Standards Board.  

In To Kill a Mockingbird, the great Harper Lee wrote: “there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal – there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution gentlemen, is a court…” 

The 2014 Annual Bar Conference took place on 8 November.  

Counsel’s editorial board reports back. 

A new way of calculating the Practising Certificate Fee according to ability to pay is to be introduced. Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive of the Bar Council, explains.  

Addressing a crowd in Worcester, Massachusetts, in autumn 1936, US President Franklin Roosevelt declared: “Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay”. At a time when the legal services market is tough and unforgiving, these words will assuredly resonate beyond those members of the Bar familiar with American history. 

David Wurtzel meets Sir Michael Pitt, the successor to David Edmonds as Chairman of the Legal Services Board, and reports back to Counsel on a man the Bar can talk to.  

Sir Michael Pitt is such a courteous and welcoming interviewee, it seemed churlish to mention the hostility which many at the Bar feel towards the Legal Services Board, of which he has been Chairman since 1 May. From client letters to QASA, barristers like to say that they are “over-regulated”. 

Celebrating excellence  

Key Facts 

Date: Saturday 8 November 2014 

Time: 08:00–18:00 

Cost: Prices start from £125 

CPD: Up to 5 points 

Venue: Westminster Park Plaza, 

200 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7UT