Chair's Column

Defending the profession; resisting cuts that will destroy access to justice for all; understanding the value of our justice system in a civilised society; and amidst all the proposed changes, the need to establish a Royal Commission to carry out a full, independent review 

Contributor
Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar 

Barristers are such an easy target. Trite sneers are instantly available to the disappointed litigant, failed pupil or populist politician. We are “fat cats” sitting in “Georgian terraces” bleating about the “racket” coming to an end. The natural response of the practitioner to these comments is anger and frustration. 

Government legal aid proposals; the shrinking effect on the Bar and on pupillages available; the need for a solution to the pupillage crisis; and one possible answer 

Contributor
Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar 

The autumn of 2013 will see Government proposals which may bring about the greatest changes to the provision of legally aided representation in criminal cases since the introduction of public funding for those accused of crime. The last two years have seen the most fundamental reduction of legal aid provision in family and general civil work since the introduction of legal aid in 1948. 

A look at the government’s new consultation on legal aid reform and an urgent call to all sections of the Bar, irrespective of discipline, to respond

Contributor
Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar 

I would imagine that being hit and knocked out by a speeding car means that when you come around you feel a mixture of relief at not being dead and a deep concern about whether your injuries might yet turn out to be fatal. That’s the dawning feeling for most of the criminal Bar following publication of the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) consultation paper, Transforming legal aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system. 

The importance of monitoring and measuring the effects of LASPO; ensuring recognition of pro bono work by both the Bar and those outside the profession; and the Bar’s fight to preserve the Rule of Law. 

Contributor
Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar 

By the time this is published the provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act relating to restrictions on the scope of legal aid will have come into force*. 

The new landscape of Alternative Business Structures; forming our own views on how our profession would best evolve; and increasing recognition of the economic value created by the Bar 

Contributor
Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar 

The first two months of the year have seen change and the promise of change. 

The encouraging and disappointing aspects of QASA and the need for ongoing input into designing the final scheme; the importance of the appointment of the new Lord Chief Justice and the fight to preserve the Criminal Bar; and January’s FSA approval of BARCO 

Contributor
Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar 

QASA. The BSB issued an announcement jointly with the other regulators just before Christmas on the form which the scheme will take when the two year trial period begins. 

The challenges faced in maintaining the profession’s cohesion; the importance of protecting the Bar’s high standards of skill and integrity in the environment currently developing; and a plea to get involved and to have a say in the future of the profession 

Contributor
Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar 

Successive chairmen have started the year wondering why their term promises to bring such problems for the profession. I’m no different. 

The merits of joining forces with the Law Society and CILEx; the need to help facilitate the transition to the new world, even if its flaws are readily apparent; the Bar as guardians of the Rule of Law; and a fond farewell. 

Contributor
Michael Todd QC, Chairman of the Bar 

This last year, I have come to realise, even more clearly than before, that you cannot please all people all of the time, and you cannot please some people any of the time. Add to that the fact that messages can be misconstrued and you have a recipe for misunderstandings. I have been portrayed as “calling for” the abolition of the Legal Services Board. I have not. In answer to a direct question, I did say that I thought it should be abolished and I said why. It is something to desire an outcome, it is another actively to pursue it. To “call for” the LSB’s abolition, so soon after its existence was extended following the MoJ’s triennial review of the LSB, would be pointless. Someone recently suggested that I am “anti-solicitor”. Nothing could be further from the truth. After all, I have been married to a solicitor for several decades. I have the highest regard for what solicitors do, and how they practise. 

Examining what the Bar stands for; fighting to maintain our standards and the Bar’s independence and integrity; and the dangers of change for change’s sake brought in too quickly and by those who do not understand what is at risk 

Contributor
Michael Todd QC, Chairman of the Bar 

In my inaugural speech last December, I encouraged members of the Bar to invest in their futures and marshal the resources available to them to secure their futures. I never anticipated that they would rush headlong unseeingly down a particular course. After all, what is the rush. The Bar as a profession has been around for some 800 years. Its reputation for ethical standards and for providing the highest quality services is second to none. It has a wealth and depth of experience in the provision of legal services, which is the envy of the common law world. 

Preface
The damaging effects of LASPO and Government cuts; SRLs;  a call to all at the Bar to support and maintain the Bar’s Pro Bono Unit;  and welcoming the new Lord Chancellor

Contributor
Michael Todd QC, Chairman of the Bar

The damage has been done: cuts in criminal defence fees by the last Labour Administration in its dying days of 13% over a three-year period on fee rates set in 1997; cuts to the CPS budget of 25% in the Comprehensive Spending Review, resulting in cuts to prosecution fee rates; the announcement earlier this year by Danny Alexander MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, that Government spending departments would have to find further cuts of 5% for contingencies; the enactment of LASPO; whole swathes of legal services have been removed from the scope of legal aid for family work. Apparently, we have had a ‘Rolls Royce’ legal aid system; apparently we spend more on legal aid than any other country in the West, if not in the world. As Shami Chakrabati, Director of Liberty, said at the Bar Conference in 2007, if that is the case, it is something of which we should be proud.