Barristers

A barrister is to be reprimanded by the head of his circuit after turning up to court under the influence of alcohol and then leaving before a hearing had finished. Meanwhile, a separate tribunal has disbarred a barrister who was convicted of evading rail fares in and out of Marylebone Station in London.

Criminal defence work is still beset by the “corrupt practices” of a minority of solicitors, as well as law firms sending incompetent in-house advocates to court – instead of instructing counsel – because of the financial benefits, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association has claimed.

The Law Society has raised its opposition to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) plan to allow practising solicitors to operate from unregulated law firms to an unprecedented level, issuing a report that said there would be little or no economic benefit from the move.

London set 6 Pump Court has become the first major chambers to set up a Bar Standards Board-regulated entity. However, head of chambers Stephen Hockman QC – a former chairman of the Bar Council – was optimistic about the durability of the traditional chambers model.

The Legal Services Board has warned the Bar’s regulator that it cannot keep changing the cut score for the test would-be barristers have to pass before being allowed to take the Bar professional training course. However, it approved changes to the rules that will allow the BSB to lift the cut score this year.

The Bar Council has slammed the Bar Standards Board’s forthcoming continuing professional development regime as being burdensome, complicated, unfit for purpose, and involving “pointless” self-assessment. It warned that the scheme would lead to “many practitioners” being “likely to fail in their compliance”.

A leading white collar crime barrister said this week that he may conduct straightforward litigation through his new Bar Standards Board-authorised entity. Bright Line Law, launched this week, is the brainchild of Jonathan Fisher QC and was devised in part as an attempt to bring together the various strands of his activities.

More than four years after it was meant to happen, implementation of the much-delayed Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is still stuck, while the profession awaits the government’s decision on whether it will set up an overlapping panel of defence advocates, Legal Futures can report.

Freeing up the rules on licensing alternative business structures will help the Solicitors Regulation Authority deal with more complex applications, such as those from businesses that form part of a group or have private equity investment, it has told the government.

Two barristers from the same chambers have between them accounted for more than one in ten of the four hundred plus new complaints made against their branch of the profession in 2015/16. The revelation came amid a crisis of public confidence in the fairness of the BSB’s complaints process.

Research into the growing trend of law firms switching regulator has begun so as to assess any risks for consumers and whether there may be unintended consequences. The Legal Services Board is undertaking the work and will look, among other things, at the extent to which new regulators check and use a lawyer or firm’s previous regulatory history.

Barristers still face a flexible working “penalty”, the Bar Council admitted this week as it urged chambers to consider rent reductions for those barristers seeking to work reduced hours or away from chambers because of care responsibilities.

The High Court has issued a two-year civil restraint order against a barrister who has repeatedly and unsuccessfully challenged disciplinary findings made against him. The judge said he approached the task “with something of a heavy heart” given that it involved a member of the Bar.

Chambers are seeing more grievances over discriminatory treatment by both employees and members, according to solicitors who advise them on dealing with their equality and diversity obligations. They said diversity presents a “particular challenge to chambers largely as a result of their unique business structure.

A barrister who was convicted last year of practising as an immigration adviser while his registration was suspended, has now been suspended from the Bar as well. Meanwhile, four unqualified immigration advisers have been convicted of offering services without being registered by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner.