Barristers

The drunken barrister who threatened a fellow member of chambers over a tenancy application did so because he believed there was a “vindictive campaign” to damage the pupil’s prospects.

A drunken barrister who threatened a fellow member of chambers in a bid to have them accede to a tenancy application has been reprimanded by a Bar disciplinary tribunal.

Online invigilators for the Bar exams taking place in August have been trained to differentiate between candidates looking around naturally and trying to read hidden notes, students have been warned.

The Inns of Court should build a “large co-working space”, possibly on one of their “grand gardens”, to increase the number of pupillages at a time when record numbers are looking for them.

Barristers who believe their chambers are ‘colour-blind’ and treat everyone the same “have a problem” and need to change their mindset, a high-profile black QC has said.

Large chambers should be prepared to look after smaller sets “chased out” by their landlords by sharing premises and clerks, a senior criminal law barrister has said.

Disability awareness should be a professional requirement, and a mandatory element of criminal lawyers’ CPD, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has recommended.

Legal regulators have reacted coolly to the recommendation of Professor Stephen Mayson that they be replaced by a single organisation, arguing instead the case for specialism.

Solicitors and barristers should publish data on which advocates are instructed in certain criminal cases as a way to counter the “gender brief gap”, a QC has suggested.

A senior junior barrister has been reprimanded and fined £1,000 for her “rude and unprofessional” behaviour in court, including shouting and pulling faces at a judge.

The High Court has overturned a decision to suspend a barrister for failing to comply with a Legal Ombudsman direction – because he was already suspended at the time of the events.

Bar professional training course students have told the Bar Standards Board that its plans for online examinations risk discriminating against women, carers and the disabled.

The Bar Standards Board is to review its approach to policing barristers’ conduct outside of practice, including how they use social media, Legal Futures can reveal.

Some chambers may choose to continue operating virtually once the Covid-19 crisis passes, with “significant implications” for their support services and collegiality.

Female barristers have urged the courts and chambers to take action to avoid the coronavirus crisis leading to “further and disproportionate attrition of women from the Bar”.