Profession

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.  

“Would you encourage your daughter to join the Bar?” asks Neelam Sarkaria  

Women in the profession are often asked whether we would recommend the Bar as a future career to their daughters.  

As the election looms, Lord Bach, shadow attorney general, talks to Chris McWatters and puts Labour’s case for justice.  

I didn’t expect to find myself in this position,” says Lord Bach, “but I’m delighted Ed Miliband asked me to do it!” 

Chris Henley QC looks at the Leveson Review and examines the proposals it makes to increase efficiency in criminal proceedings.  

The Right Honourable Sir Brian Leveson, President of the Queen’s Bench Division, was tasked in February 2014 by the Lord Chief Justice, responding to a request by the Lord Chancellor, to conduct a review into the efficiency of criminal proceedings. 

Sacrificing genetic confidentiality and criminalising revenge pornography; just some of the proposals by the sixth form participants of the 2014 Model Law Commission.  

Big Voice’s Victoria Anderson explains. 

Sarah-Jane Bennett explains how the Bar Council is working to reform the criminal justice system and legal aid.  

2015 will be a year of big change for the whole of the criminal justice system. 

Colin Edelman QC on professional indemnity insurance for BSB regulated entities and the threatened future of Bar Mutual.  

Self-employed barristers were first compelled to have professional indemnity insurance as a pre-condition for practice in 1980, on the basis that a responsible profession had to have regard to the interest of consumers by ensuring that consumers with valid negligence claims should not be prejudiced by the potential inability of barristers to meet judgments entered against them. 

S Chelvan, LALY Barrister 2014, recalls the dark days of sexual identity asylum law and explains why he chose to practise in one of the most politically charged areas of the law GUIDE.  

“With all the legal aid cuts, you will most probably be the last Legal Aid Barrister of the Year.”