Barristers
Cry freedom: New rules “strengthen regulators’ independence”
The Legal Services Board has finalised revised rules to ensure clearer separation of regulatory and representative functions at bodies like the Law Society and Bar Council.
BSB reduces publication periods for misbehaving barristers
The Bar Standards Board is to cut the length of time that sanctions imposed on misbehaving barristers appear on its website, on the Bar Register and when it responds to requests for information.
Consumer panel urges regulators to publish complaints data
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has criticised legal regulators’ continuing “resistance” to publishing complaints data about the lawyers they oversee.
Inns of Court to be first provider of new Bar training course
The Inns of Court College of Advocacy is set to be the first organisation approved to run the new Bar training course, which it is doing on a not-for-profit basis.
Chambers “must publish” data on sexual orientation and religion
The Legal Services Board has approved a new rule requiring chambers to include sexual orientation and religion in the diversity data they publish on their websites, whether or not all of their barristers agree.
“I need a good PA,” says barrister who practised illegally for four years
A barrister who worked without a practising certificate for more than four years – which is a criminal offence – told a disciplinary tribunal he could do with “a good PA”.
White students still way out ahead in race for pupillages
White students are significantly more likely to obtain pupillage than those from BAME backgrounds, with the gap widest among those who have not achieved the highest results, new figures have shown.
Exclusive: First Bar Standards Board ABS closes down
The first alternative business structure licensed by the Bar Standards Board – a combination of barristers and football agents – has shut down, Legal Futures can reveal.
“Formal periodic reaccreditation” for lawyers back on the table
The Legal Services Board is set to begin work on a a review of continuing competence that will revisit the possibility of formal periodic reaccreditation for lawyers.
LSB agrees to limit price transparency to public access barristers
The Legal Services Board has approved Bar Standards Board plans which will require public access barristers, but not other self-employed barristers, to publish fees for routine legal services on their websites.
Legal aid lawyers “risk their mental health” with traumatic cases
Legal aid lawyers in serious cases deal with trauma that is bound to have an impact on them, and they also have to start showing compassion to junior staff who suffer from burnout.
Law lecturers “free to embrace diversity”, says academic
Academics who decline to pursue diversity in their teaching wrongly think that the content of curriculums for qualifying law degrees is detailed by legal regulators, a leading academic has suggested.
Report calls for end to “macho culture” of chambers
The “macho culture that can pervade chambers” must go if the Bar is to improve its gender balance, a report by a specialist discrimination law firm run by a QC has concluded.
Barrister returns to High Court in BSB race discrimination case
A barrister involved in long-running litigation with the Bar Standards Board, in a case that has already been to the Supreme Court, is preparing for the next stage of her race discrimination claim.
Dental regulator named new chief executive of LSB
The executive director of strategy, policy and communications at the General Dental Council has been named as the new chief executive of the Legal Services Board.












