Practice Toolset

More needs to be done to safeguard vulnerable witnesses in the family courts, says Gillian Geddes  

Whatever family practitioners do next, I suggest they make it their highest priority to log on to The Advocate’s Gateway and examine the list of excellent Toolkits on the right of the home page. 

Mrs Justice Vivien Rose talks to Anthony Inglese about her unusual route to the High Court bench  

In the small talk before going in to meet Her Majesty and being made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the newly-appointed Mrs Justice Vivien Rose was asked, “Have you had to come far?”  

The diversity of the employed Bar  

A popular misconception when considering the employed Bar is assuming that roles are either in a solicitor’s firm or in the Government Legal Service or CPS. Dispelling this myth, Melissa Coutinho continues her series of 60 second interviews which demonstrate the diversity of work that employed lawyers undertake 

Andrew Granville Stafford considers the attractions, the pitfalls and the mechanics of public access work  

Among my first public access clients were an African prince, a 70s prog rock star and the former managing clerk of a large solicitor’s firm whose preferred method of payment was an envelope containing £50 notes.  

Simon Sugar explains how, post-LASPO, one of the challenges for the Bar is how to devise a cost-effective structure for the provision of public access services to meet the increasing demand from both “public” and “commercial” litigants-in-person  

“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie” - All’s Well That Ends Well  

Entrepreneurship and collaboration: Stephen Ward explains why “innovative” thinking around public access isn’t the real starting point  

I have been to far too many conferences lately that urge legal professionals – particularly the Bar – to be “innovative” in order to survive in the modern legal world.  

Amanda de Winter explains her route to setting up a high-street direct access practice and argues that a full litigation practice offers the junior Bar a viable future  

Is direct access a real alternative to traditional methods of practice? My answer is a resounding yes, if you are able to offer a full litigation service to your client. 

Paul Mosson explains the background to BARCO, its modus operandi and its role within the growing area of public access  

First launched to the Bar in April 2013, BARCO was established to provide a unique solution for handling client money that allowed the Bar Standards Board (BSB) to uphold its prohibition on barristers and BSB regulated entities holding client money themselves.  

Escrow has quickly become an essential part of chambers’ public access offering. Senior clerk and practice manager, Mike Ryan, explains  

In the past few years, chambers has witnessed a significant growth in public access work.  

Yuri Rapoport considers how barristers can assure revenue in low to middle quantum cases, despite the “big squeeze” on legal funding  

Two years since the latest round of legal aid cuts, the soaring number of unrepresented cases being heard in the courts have all but crushed the Government’s hopes of people pursuing less expensive and less confrontational means of settling disputes.