Practice Toolset

David Wurtzel talks to Nicholas Lavender QC, incoming Chairman of the Bar, about his new role and his plans for his year in office.  

When I asked the 2014 Chairman of the Bar Council, Nicholas Lavender QC, why he wanted to be Chairman, he said, “For me, it was the culmination of a career involved in Bar politics.” He has combined this career with a busy practice in commercial work in which he specialises in actions for and against banks in negligent advice cases. As a former Chairman of the Professional Practice Committee, there can be few who better understand the ethical issues which face the profession. Noting that he is a member of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club and of the MCC, it would be fair to say that both literally and metaphorically, he plays with a straight bat. 

David Nolan SC and Mark Mulholland QC report for Counsel on the First Joint Meeting of the General Council of the Bar of Ireland & the Bar Council of Northern Ireland  

"May I add to my farewell my hope and prayer that the Bar of Ireland whatever may befall, hitherto united as one body, inspired with fraternal loyalty to their fellows will continue to transmit their fine traditions, and that Bar and Bench together will never fail to preserve and uphold the lofty standard of their predecessors, so honoured by us all for learning, independence and courage.” (Bencher’s Minute Book 1917 – 1928 p 135. 13 April 1921). 

From the beginning of January 2014 barristers will take control of their own Continuing Professional Development. Oliver Hanmer explains the new system and examines the effect of this small but important change on the working lives of barristers.  

A seemingly small but strikingly significant change to barristers’ working lives happened this month. Amid the flurry of activity that the New Year brings, barristers will be forgiven for failing to notice a real break with an annual tradition. This year, for the first time, no-one will have received the regulator’s reminder for barristers to complete and return their Continuing Professional Development cards. And that is because, this year, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) is not requiring barristers to send them in for inspection. 

Thomas Ogg explains how to navigate the route safely.  

Not many barristers have opened a Free School, but I’m one of them: I’m chair of governors of the East London Science School, which opened in September 2013. Consequently, I have a good idea of the potential legal pitfalls of setting up a free school, and the extent to which this will generate work for lawyers. 

This year’s Bar Conference was held on 2 November 2013 at Westminster Park Plaza.  Counsel reports back.  

Just a stone’s throw from the Palace of Westminster, over 550 barristers, clerks, practice managers, law students, journalists and interested observers gathered to take stock of a frenetic, and often bruising, year for the profession. But they also gathered to learn and discuss how to face up to the challenges of the future. 

A lively opening keynote session featured a welcome from Conference Chairman, Saba Naqshbandi, the Chairman of the Bar’s address and a keynote speech from one of the leading advocates of his generation, and polymath, Lord Pannick QC. 

John Battle, ITN’s Head of Compliance, on the new rules, the background to the changes, and what the future holds.  

This legal term sees a significant turning point for our legal system; televising of proceedings in the Court of Appeal begins. Although Supreme Court judgments can already be viewed on a dedicated YouTube channel, and live proceedings seen on a Sky News website, this is the first time that the public has seen footage of the Court of Appeal. It could open the door, in due course, to extending filming to trial courts. 

Four years on from its inception, the Supreme Court has evolved considerably. Alan Paterson examines its way of operating and how it contrasts with that of its predecessor, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords  

In October the Supreme Court embarked on its fifth year as the UK’s top court. There has been a real changing of the guard since it began in October 2009. The new President and Deputy President are flanked by 10 Justices, only three of whom formerly served on the Appellate Committees of the House of Lords. This is an indication of the impact that a mandatory retirement age can have on an appellate court, which starkly contrasts with the position on the US Supreme Court where the turnover of Justices is much slower. Nevertheless for the first time since its inception the UK Court can look forward to a period of three years or so of stability in its membership. Stability makes a difference not just to issues that nobody notices such as room changes in the court – and yes, geography matters in final appellate courts more than the court watchers of the past have been aware – but to issues that they do, such as attitudes to single majority judgments, dissents and concurrences – in short, team-working. Here there has been a sea change from the Bingham era of the House of Lords. The intellectual weight of that Court – the strongest in the House of Lords in recent times – emanated from the individual strengths of its members. This meant that, unlike the English Court of Appeal (then and now), the House of Lords in its last decade was only intermittently collegial, in the technical sense of working together as a team. For Lord Bingham and most of his colleagues opinion writing, concurrences and dissents were largely a matter of individual preference. 

In the first of a series of articles from the Bar Council IT Panel, Jonathan Polnay addresses the issue of mobile devices and how they can be kept secure . 

Smartphones and tablets are no longer new technology. Solicitors and clients demand instant responses to e-mails. We think nothing of viewing drafts of documents on the go and suggesting amendments by return. This added productivity comes with added risks – significant security risks. 

The Blair Government dismantled our legal system overnight. The present Government has installed a politician as Lord Chancellor. Sir Stephen Sedley examines the consequences and warns of government’s growing practice of kite-flying.  

Writers on the British constitution have always faced the problem that, contrary to what Mr Podsnap thought, it cannot simply be held up to the light and admired. The constitution is simultaneously a description of how, for the moment, we are governed and a prescriptive account of how we ought to be governed. In both respects (the former much more than the latter) it undergoes constant change; and there are concerns, highlighted by the radical changes currently being made to the legal aid system, that the process may be accelerating into a critical and damaging phase. 

This year’s Young Bar Conference was always going to be a lively one. Max Hardy reports.   

Joy is a word very little heard in the Inns of Court and Crown Court robing rooms these days and a sentiment still less felt. It took Lord Justice Moses, as so often before, in a barnstorming speech to the Young Bar Conference on Saturday 5 October, to remind us all what being a barrister is really all about.