Practice Toolset

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.  

Henry King and Simon Paul explore how shared cross-examination could expand opportunities for junior trial advocates, with reference to practice in other jurisdictions  

In the course of the discussion at the recent COMBAR North America meeting in Washington DC concerning the expansion of advocacy opportunities for junior counsel – as noted in this issue (see "Mind the gap") – support was expressed for giving junior lawyers discrete issues on which to conduct cross-examination.  

Adrian Jack crunches the numbers on High Court judiciary pay and warns of a looming recruitment catastrophe  

Recruitment to the High Court bench is facing a crisis due to collapsing pay and pension. 

Rachel Spearing reviews the results from the Bar Council’s first survey of the wellbeing of the profession  

The Bar, by its very nature, is a stressful place to work, regardless of Call, practice area or status and we are all aware of the levels of stigma associated with displaying any sign of weakness.  

As the Bar Standards Board reviews pupillages and prepares to consult on the present Bar training system, Guy Fetherstonhaugh QC looks back at their evolution  

In February 2015, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) published Future Bar Training : a programme of review and reform aimed at updating its regulation of training for and at the Bar.  

Anthony Inglese CB with his second and final look at the lawyers to be found in the corridors of Whitehall  

A young Government Legal Service barrister is giving his first piece of advice to a Famous Top Political Figure. 

Simon Thornton-Wood explains the BSB review of pupillages and the purpose of its upcoming consultation  

“Nothing can substitute experience,” wrote the author Paulo Coelho. 

David Wurtzel meets Sir Andrew Burns, the new Chair of the Bar Standards Board  

Sir Andrew Burns is the third Chair of the Bar Standards Board (BSB), the first man to hold the post, and resolutely a layman.  

Advising Secretaries of State and Cabinet Secretaries is not about the gift of the gab, finds Anthony Inglese CB  

“Say your piece. Be concise. Then shut up. Ministers have no time to listen to a long legal ramble,” says Harry Carter, Deputy Legal Adviser to the Home Office, Chief Legal Adviser to the Northern Ireland Office and now a Bencher of Gray’s Inn.