Barristers

A London commercial chambers has put up £20,000 to fund a pupillage that a criminal set has had to withdraw because of the impact of Covid-19, in a move hailed as showing the spirit of the Bar.

Problems with the Bar exams were far more extensive than previously reported, the Bar Standards Board admits as barristers warn that ‘pen and paper’ resits next month could breach equality law.

Claims of race discrimination brought by a barrister against the Bar Standards Board as part of a decade-long dispute have been dismissed as time-barred by an employment tribunal.

The number of chambers delaying pupillages that were due to start this month or next is likely to have a knock-on effect on the supply of places until 2022, the Bar Standards Board said today.

The Bar Standards Board has launched a pilot reverse mentoring scheme, in which Bar students and junior barristers from BAME backgrounds mentor senior White barristers.

A hugely experienced criminal defence barrister who shouted and pulled faces at a judge should have sent her a letter of apology, a Bar disciplinary tribunal has said.

A petition calling on the Bar Standards Board to waive the requirement that Bar students complete the centralised exams has attracted more than 1,000 signatures on its first day.

The Bar Standards Board is looking to arrange another round of exams well before December, its director-general has told Legal Futures, as complaints about the online system mount.

Some 11% of Bar professional training course students taking their first exam online this week have experienced technical problems, the Bar Standards Board said today.

The impact of Covid-19 on the justice system and the government’s response has led a mid-sized London set to announce its closure, saying members are not prepared to take the financial risk they are facing.

A Muslim Bar student felt forced to defer her exams because the BSB said she had to remove her headscarf for ID purposes but could not guarantee that it would be a woman who would watch.

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.