Barristers

Barristers in the youth courts will have to make a declaration that they have reached the standards set out by the Bar Standards Board to continue providing the service, it has emerged. But there will be no compulsory training so as to avoid discouraging counsel from doing low-paid youth court work.

A criminal defence solicitor who used his law firm’s accounts to lie about his income to HM Revenue & Customs and steal more than £60,000 in a tax fraud, has been jailed for 18 months. Meanwhile, two barristers have been disbarred after separate criminal convictions, one involving supplying cocaine.

The High Court has overturned a disciplinary tribunal finding against a barrister found to have pestered three women at a chambers summer party. Mrs Justice Lang said Stephen Howd’s “inappropriate, and at times offensive, behaviour was a consequence of his medical condition”, exacerbated by excessive alcohol.

Some 2,500 barristers will earn more than £240,000 this year, Bar Council figures have shown, and they will have to pay an extra £200 for their practising certificates after the Legal Services Board approved a 12% hike in fees across the board.

The Bar Council has appointed Thrings and Veale Wasborough Vizards as the first members of a new panel that will help barristers “delicately” recover unpaid fees from solicitors. More firms are expected to join the panel, and they offer a choice of payment options, including conditional fee agreements and fixed fees.

Two barristers have launched a Bar Standards Board-regulated entity offering commercial advice as an alternative to traditional chambers, hoping to pass on the savings from low overheads to clients. Lorna Hackett and David Dabbs have formed Hampshire-based Hackett & Dabbs.

The Bar Standards Board has found itself under attack from multiple directions this week, including the Supreme Court announcing yesterday that it would hear an appeal about a case involving claims of race discrimination in its disciplinary processes.

A senior judge has accused solicitors of “blackmailing” the immigration tribunal in an extraordinary attack that also branded their conduct as “disgraceful” and “shameful” in not pursuing the appeals they had lodged.He also warned that some barristers had wrongly seen their role as protecting their instructing solicitors.

A north London law firm has been rebuked for misleading its client into thinking that it had made a visa application on his behalf. It is one of a series of recent disciplinary cases, including the bankrupt insolvency barrister fined for not paying over fees to his trustee in bankruptcy.

The Competition and Market Authority’s report on legal services yesterday provoked a predictably mixed response that pitted the Law Society against the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and found support from the body representing paid McKenzie Friends. Meanwhile, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers called on the Legal Services Board to use its powers to force regulatory independence to happen.