Barristers

A high-profile family law sole practitioner solicitor has acquired a Bar Standards Board-regulated entity because the no-frills regulation it offered was, she said, an “easy fit” for her low-risk practice. Oxford-based Alexandra Lewis Family Law Limited received BSB authorisation at the end of last month.

A barrister who dishonestly failed to pay his share of chambers’ fees has been disbarred. Over two years, he failed to inform 4 Kings Bench Walk of the fees he had received for 32 public access and then dishonestly failed to pay the chambers £4,236 which he was legally liable for as a result.

A barrister who claims to be a “master strategist and tactician” was reprimanded last week for making “offensive” comments about a child abuse victim while her mother sat in court. He said the 16-year-old “was not a young and innocent girl” as he represented her attacker in the Court of Appeal.

A new brand selling direct access barristers to the general public for consumer law matters has gone live, Legal Futures can reveal. Meanwhile, the first, basic iteration of Billy Bot, the ‘robot junior clerk’ being created by Clerksroom, has gone live.

A barrister who specialises in advising technology companies has launched a Bar Standards Board entity to house her employment practice, while the legal group she co-founded is poised to release a product geared to helping clients navigate European data legislation.

A commercial barrister has been suspended from practice for failing to comply with an order of the Legal Ombudsman and requests from his own regulator, only two years after a series of similar findings as well as a suspension for handling client money when he should not have done.

The Bar Standards Board has opened the way to replace the criminal standard of proof in disciplinary matters with the civil standard, in a move that could well ripple across the profession amid growing pressure to adopt the civil standard uniformly.

A barrister accused of forging client care letters has lost an appeal against his disbarment at the High Court. Mrs Justice Lang rejected Damian McCarthy’s argument that a Bar disciplinary tribunal was under pressure from the Bar Standards Board to convict him.

An unregistered barrister has been fined £1,000 by a Bar disciplinary tribunal for falsely describing himself as a solicitor and appearing in court when he did not have the right to do so. Another non-practising barrister has been disbarred, meanwhile, for stealing from her law firm employer’s petty cash and her colleagues’ handbags.

A Bar Standards Board-regulated charity that provided pro bono legal representation in challenging the unlawful detention of migrants and asylum seekers has been wound up just 15 months after it was authorised due mainly to problems with funding. It appears to be the first BSB entity to be dissolved.