Barristers

A High Court judge has allowed three new harassment allegations against barrister Barbara Hewson to go ahead, while upholding an earlier ruling that a host of other ones should be struck out.

The High Court has upheld the reprimand and fine issued to a barrister who sent a “seriously offensive” tweet in a private capacity that was “racially charged and derogatory to women”.

The Legal Services Board is ramping up pressure on the Law Society, the Bar Council and other approved regulators over ensuring the independence of their regulatory arms.

The Law Society and Bar Council have strongly attacked plans by the Legal Ombudsman to extend its publication of information about complaints, arguing that it would not help consumers.

Written pupillage agreements will become compulsory from 1 May 2020, the Bar Standards Board has decreed, while all chambers have to bring their recruitment into line with the pupillage gateway.

A barrister suspended for sending obscene and offensive tweets “might well have scaled the heights of the profession” had it not been for her actions outside of her practice, a tribunal has said.

The Bar Council is to explore how to deliver training to barristers about dealing with suicidal clients after a family law practitioner related her own harrowing experiences confronting the issue.

A London chambers has made it compulsory for all members to attend “anti-oppression” sessions covering the range of protected characteristics.

The Bar Standards Board is struggling to cope with the rise in complaints from members of the public, missing its performance target by a big distance, its annual enforcement report has revealed.

A barrister working as a trade union’s in-house lawyer is considering a claim for false imprisonment against the Metropolitan Police after he was briefly arrested on a picket line.