Barristers

Legal regulators will have to explain more clearly how they spend their practising certificate fees under revised rules proposed by the Legal Services Board.

Barristers have offered to support the dozens of Bar students who have so far reported major problems with taking their exams, including having to urinate into bottles and buckets at their desks.

A “small number” of Bar students were affected by technical issues that prevented them from completing their first online exam, the BSB said yesterday amid a stream of complaints.

Barristers may be keen to get back to work but they are not going back to chambers, and nearly a third of sets have given or are considering giving partial notice on their leases.

Little more than a third (37%) of barristers, chambers and firms regulated by the Bar Standards Board are fully complying with its rules on price and service transparency, it has emerged.

The Legal Sector Workers Union has committed to backing legal action Bar professional training course students sitting exams next month may want to bring against the Bar Standards Board.

Larger law firms face a new levy of £100-200 per £1m of revenue to support the government’s economic crime plan, under proposals outlined by the Treasury yesterday.

The Bar Council is applying for a £5m loan under the government’s coronavirus business interruption loan scheme amid concerns that nearly a third of legal aid barristers may leave the Bar next year.

A barrister has been ordered to hand over details of who else had access to a controversial Twitter account that harassed activists campaigning against antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Progress by the legal regulators in understanding and tackling ongoing inequalities in the profession is “too slow” and lacks “strategic direction”, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has said. The oversight regulator said there were “fundamental shortcomings” in the collection of… Read More