Practice Toolset

Can this year’s landmark 25th Annual Bar Conference grapple with the mounting challenges facing the Bar and reinvigorate those who feel most battle weary? Definitely, say Kim Hollis QC and Toby Craig.  

It’s fitting that the Bar Conference sees its silver Jubilee during a year of historical and potentially radical changes for the entire legal profession. When else can every individual involved in the business of the Bar come together and help influence the future of all our careers? 

James Roebuck reports on the recent Birmingham Aimhigher Conference “How to get to the Bar”.  

On 12 July 2010 some 80 sixth form students from schools and colleges across the West Midlands region, Cheshire and the Wirral, attended a Bar Council-Aimhigher widening participation conference entitled “How to get to the Bar”, at St Philips Chambers in Birmingham. 

Are your chambers’ details being used in connection with online fraud? Caroline Kean and Rachel Barber advise on protecting chambers from uninvited and unauthorised association with bogus websites 

David Wurtzel finds that the records kept in the Bar Council library contain a real treasure trove of the Bar Council’s history.  

Although the law is based on precedent, the least well known part of the Bar Council premises is its library, situated in the basement and presided over since 1994 by the librarian, the splendid Rosa Munoz. “I call myself the keeper of the memory of the Bar Council. The Bar Council is a series of committees where decisions are made,” she said before I began my trawl through some of the treasures which she has preserved, conserved and kept safe for the future—Bar Council minutes, committee papers, news, notices, Bar News, Counsel magazine, historic agreements, Royal Commission reports—in fact the whole written “memory” since the original “Bar Committee” was formed in 1883. From time to time I paused to continue my discussions with Rosa about the Spanish Civil War. Rosa was born in Spain during the Franco era (“our 40 years of shame”) and grew up in an atmosphere where history books were censored, families still stood divided, and opponents of the regime were hidden for decades in order to avoid arrest. She has lived in England since the 1960s, arguably more appreciative than the barristers she came to serve of what the rule of law really means. 

Dr Ann Brady argues that it is time to look again at local judge-directed court mediation schemes. The decision to abolish the Exeter Court Mediation Scheme and replace it with a national mediation scheme was premature, she believes 

Lesley Bates reports on the Criminal Bar Association’s Spring Conference 

With your help, we can ensure that we are working in all our members’ interests, writes Desmond Browne QC.  

The Bar Council’s Member Services team came into existence last summer with one goal, to provide tangible benefits to the Bar and make our personal and professional lives that much easier. Already this past autumn the team has been testing the temperature to see how best they can support the Bar community. 

The Bar Council is seeking views on the introduction of contractual terms as the standard terms for barristers accepting instructions from solicitors in privately funded matters. Sarah Asplin QC explains why the current system is unsatisfactory.  

Members of the Bar will recall that the Bar Council had been negotiating with the Law Society over many, many years with a view to introducing contractual terms as the standard basis on which barristers accept instructions from solicitors. These terms would replace the present usual terms, namely “The Terms of Work on which Barristers offer their Services to Solicitors and the Withdrawal of Credit Scheme 1988” (as amended), and the rarely used 2001 contractual version of those Terms, which are replicated in Annexes G1 and G2 of the Bar Code of Conduct. 

Pupils can follow more than one path to the Bar, advises Melissa Coutino. Split pupillages enable pupils to spend time with an employer and in chambers. They can be an attractive option for all, she believes 

Pupils need to follow a single path” is a generalisation that both some self-employed and employed barristers may be culpable of making. This is not the case. Split pupillages, whereby a pupil spends time with an employer and  with chambers, can be an attractive option. They allow chambers and an employer to share their investment risk, regulatory burden and commitment to training, while benefiting from the work of a person who is keen, bright and eager to qualify.  

David Wurtzel reports on the latest development in the quality assurance assessment process for the Bar.  

This month the Joint Advocacy Group (“JAG”) is due to publish the results of its consultation on standards in advocacy. It will be closely followed by a consultation on the next stage, namely the methods of assessment. In February the Legal Services Commission (“LSC”) produced a Discussion Paper “Quality Assurance for Advocates” which confirms that they are passing the baton to the JAG along with advice, warnings and a complete report on their own experience in running a quality assurance assessment (“QAA”) pilot which was carried out by Cardiff Law School.