Profession

In the first of a new Legal Practice Management Association column cultivating innovation in chambers, Stewart Thompson looks at corporate social responsibility at the Bar: going far or far to go?  

Ten years ago, if a barrister wanted to take positive action on social responsibility, it was a personal matter, just for them. 

Danny Robinson explains the complex issues raised by an absent defendant and Helena Duong reports from the Bar & Young Bar Conference on the launch of the new online ethics hub for barristers  

Fortune favours the brave, women and younger applicants, finds David Wurtzel, who delves into the details of this year’s list to assess how changed is the face of Silk and the influence of where you practise  

On 26 February 2018, 119 new Queen’s Counsel will be sworn in by the Lord Chancellor in Westminster Hall. 

Sally Penni, barrister and mum of three, is trying to do things differently when out of court. Here, the Joint Vice Chair of the Association of Women Barristers and founder of Women in the Law UK shares a typical day in her life and practice  

I wake up at 6am to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. It’s my best source of information. 

Junior barristers, now more than ever, face a world which looks increasingly uncertain. Rick Hoyle, Chair of the Young Barristers’ Committee, looks at the worrying trend and what is being done about it  

Whilst the Bar as a whole is now larger than ever before, at a little over 16,000 practising barristers, that trend masks much more disturbing news at the junior end. 

Recruitment of BAME judges is still slow, but diversity and community relations judges are working at grass roots to alter our judiciary’s future face, writes Jacqueline McLean  

Equal treatment and diversity in the law has rightly come under much scrutiny in recent years. 

Jonathan Fisher QC shares his experiences after a year of practising through a BSB authorised entity and the tensions between maintaining relationships with professional referrers whilst encouraging direct access  

It is a little over 12 months since I started to practise through a Bar Standards Board (BSB) authorised entity, which has enabled me to embrace the modernity of legal practice whilst maintaining the heritage of a barrister’s chambers.  

Amidst official inquiries, media exposes and NGO research condemning the UK’s immigration detention practices, lawyers’ accounts reveal a system riddled with injustice. Dr Anna Lindley reports  

‘You are not much of a lawyer if you are not startled by the State’s power of indefinite detention, or the poor decision-making which results in many remaining in detention when they plainly should not be.’ 

Findings from a survey of the LGBT+ Bar make for hard reading, say Steven Vaughan and Marc Mason, who outline what we know and what needs to be done
 

Acutely aware of the economic realities facing the profession, Andrew Walker QC, Chair of the Bar for 2018, talks to Mary Cowe about his plans to lead and develop the Bar during his term of office  

Drawn to the commercial Bar after a youthful flirtation with economics, Andrew Walker QC is a Chair who understands that to some extent you do have to look at life at the Bar through a business lens, whatever your practice area.