Barristers

Barristers are generally happy with their new continuing professional development regime but are struggling to understand the concept of ‘reflection’, independent research has found.

Market forces will mean that commercial sets without a diverse gender pool at all levels will soon find themselves losing work to more gender-equal sets, according to a circuit judge researching equality.

It is about time that men and women realise that they have “no right to judge a woman’s commitment to and ability to do her job based on her appearance”, a leading QC has declared.

The pre-1992 universities achieve the best results in the centralised exams taken by students on the Bar Professional Training Course, it has emerged.

The drive towards online or virtual justice puts advocacy and professional standards at risk, delegates at the Bar Council’s annual conference heard on Saturday.

A barrister suspended last month for offensive messages on Facebook posted one that was effectively a threat to kill a member of the public, it has emerged. They were also “misogynistic”.

A barrister jailed for making indecent photographs of children has been disbarred, while another disciplined by the SDT suspended, and a barrister who failed to appear at a hearing reprimanded.

Law schools are not taking advantage of the “enormous regulatory freedom” they have and instead are largely all offering the same kind of law degree, new research has found.

Chambers should give barristers the right to return to work after two or three years of parental leave, the Western Circuit Women’s Forum has said.

Communications giant BT has handed over ownership of its alternative business structure to listed law firm DWF, it has emerged. Meanwhile, an Italian law firm has set up a BSB-regulated ABS.

The Competition and Markets Authority has ramped up the pressure on the Bar Standards Board over its decision to stop funding the cross-regulator Legal Choices website.

The Legal Services Board has issued a thinly veiled warning to the Bar Standards Board over the need to invest “substantially” in consumer information after withdrawing from funding Legal Choices.

The Bar Council has strongly criticised the Bar Standards Board for bombarding barristers with updates to its handbook which risked becoming “overwhelming”.

An employment tribunal has rejected all the claims of discrimination, victimisation and whistleblowing made by a barrister who also acted as the chambers manager.

A barrister who posted a number of offensive and disparaging comments about a member of the public on Facebook has been suspended from practice.