Practice Toolset

The theme of this year’s Employed Bar Conference was regulation. Melissa Coutinho takes a look . 

The recent Employed Bar Conference (EBC) was particularly successful this time, according to the feedback from those who attended. That the weather was good, the subject matter topical, speakers varied and the venue, the plush offices of Stephenson Harwood LLP, could not have hurt. The title of the conference: “Regulation: carrot or stick, here to stay” was designed to cover as many practice areas as possible, to reflect the diversity of the Employed Bar. Everyone agreed that at least some of the programme was particularly pertinent to them, but as usual, areas that were unfamiliar to many in their professional lives, nonetheless stimulated interest. 

Some in the legal world are absenting themselves from the general handwringing, and planning instead how they can turn the uncertainty to their advantage. Adam Sampson examines the shifting legal scene  

As I write many lawyers are rallying around a “Save the Legal Industry” campaign while making dire predictions of job losses in the hundreds of thousands – and all within the space of a year. Ringing a similar death knell, the Solicitors Regulation Authority is telling firms to prepare for the worst and establish contingency plans for insolvency. At first glance, it would appear the four horsemen of the legal apocalypse are cantering ever closer, fed by changes to the legal market and the tightening of legal incomes. 

18 June saw a Bar Council sponsored Legal Aid Question Time being held at Church House to discuss the Government’s consultation paper.  Counsel’s David Wurtzel was there  

After 16,000 responses were sent to the Ministry of Justice, was there anything left to say about the Government’s consultation paper, Transforming Legal Aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system ? Apparently so, as the Bar Council sponsored Legal Aid Question Time  at Church House in London on 18 June. A panel consisting of Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar, Lord McNally, Minister of State in charge of Legal Aid, Andy Slaughter MP, Shadow Minister for Legal Aid, and Steve Hynes of the Legal Action Group, was deftly chaired by Joshua Rozenberg. In the hour’s session, he made sure that all the speakers had a chance to give their views and where appropriate to have a right of reply. Succinctness was duly rewarded. In the audience were lawyers, journalists, civil servants and students, joined by a wider audience following it live on Twitter. 

At a service of Choral Evensong in Temple Church in June, in honour of Magna Carta and to celebrate the Inns’ Amity, the Lord Chief Justice gave an address, which he summarises for  Counsel.  

"39. No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land

40. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice" 

Daphne Perry suggests ways to make a fleshy skeleton more appealing to the judge . 

Question: You are writing a skeleton argument. How long should it be?...
  

Registration for the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates is due to be rolled out across the country. Joshua Rozenberg looks at the history behind QASA for  Counsel, and why its introduction is so contentious.  

In a perfect world, there would be no need for regulators to impose quality controls on advocates. Indeed, there would be no need for lawyers to be regulated at all. If you were good, you would get work. If not, word would soon get around. 

There was a time when the Bar of England and Wales was small enough for that approach to be effective. In some specialist areas of the legal profession, I suspect it still is. But criminal advocacy now faces too many challenges for market forces to operate effectively. 

As the Ministry of Justice sifts through responses to the Legal Aid Consultation, Toby Craig looks at some of the dissenting voices  

Eight weeks, 56 days, 1,344 hours. 80,640 minutes...you get the picture. That was how long the Ministry of Justice allowed for responses to be formulated to its deeply controversial Consultation Paper, Transforming Legal Aid . Critics say the proposals will fundamentally alter and undermine the criminal justice system in this jurisdiction alongside further and substantial changes to civil legal aid. 

Women leave the Bar in large numbers after having children. The Bar Nursery is a first step towards addressing this problem. Kate Grange, Jess Connors and Victoria Butler-Cole examine the background.  

It’s been five years since the Bar Nursery Association was established and over that time there have been some considerable highs and lows in the campaign to establish suitable childcare facilities for members of the Bar close to the Inns of Court. 

Toby Craig examines whether corporate social responsibility is just good business or is part of the Bar’s DNA?  

Very few people love lawyers, or will even countenance their existence... until they need one. It is a profession in need of some public rehabilitation. Sadly, the bright idea of ‘International be Kind to Lawyers Day’, was also the date chosen by the Ministry of Justice on which to announce yet more legal aid cuts. Maybe the Lord Chancellor did not get the memo. It’s true, lawyers are probably held in slightly higher esteem than our friends in the banking community and, say, tax collectors, but they have never been the most popular professionals. In some ways, that’s odd. There is great affection for the traditions of the Bar. Its traditions, and sense of theatre, help, in part, to fuel a brand which is recognised and respected all over the world, perhaps more than it is here. But, whilst the family GP or a teacher in a local school is instinctively seen as a positive role model, there seems to be a more natural suspicion of the bewigged and hidden world of the Bar. 

After a long and tortuous journey, nursery provision is finally in place for the Bar. Fiona Jackson explains the background to, and the role of, the “Bar Nursery at Smithfield House”.  

The problem of retaining barrister parents, particularly women once they start a family, is not new to our profession. For the self-employed Bar, the financial costs of having a family can be particularly high as they are unable to benefit from childcare vouchers and other initiatives available to employees. It must be beyond argument that as a profession and in the public interest we should be striving to ensure the retention of the brightest and the best individuals who have spent many years in training and who, we hope, will go on to become the Queen’s Counsel and judges of the future.