Barristers

A barrister who withdrew from acting for her local authority client at the end of an eight-day planning appeal is to be advised as to her future conduct, but has otherwise avoided sanction at a Bar disciplinary tribunal.

A barrister who overturned his disbarment at the Court of Appeal last year has been disbarred again. Damian McCarthy was found by a Bar disciplinary tribunal to have forged client care letters, after a direct access client complained.

The chief executive of a pioneering set of direct access chambers has said victory in a group action at the Court of Appeal proves barristers can “cut out the intermediaries”. Carla Morris-Papps said direct access had meant “massive savings” for over 200 clients because the case had not gone through solicitors.

A barrister turned solicitor has been disbarred 10 years after he was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. He did not tell the Bar about the decision and the Bar Standards Board only became aware of it last year when Lloyd Aneke applied for restoration to the roll of solicitors.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that a barrister who successfully defended herself in disciplinary proceedings should not be paid costs at the £120 hourly rate allowed by a tribunal-appointed assessor. But it upheld the basic principle that barristers in such situations can claim their costs at a rate higher than that of a normal litigant-in-person.

The High Court has thrown out two appeals against Bar disciplinary tribunal decisions by “named and shamed” barrister Tariq Rehman. It has also refused permission for him to proceed with two judicial reviews and had no truck with the arguments he put forward.

Law Society spending on non-regulatory ‘permitted purposes’, such as law reform and practice support, surged by £6.3m in the four years between 2010 and 2014, research by the Legal Services Board has revealed. The research was part of the LSB’s investigation into the cost of legal services regulation.

Large numbers of barristers’ chambers are flouting an obligation to publish diversity data and the Bar Standards Board has been “unsophisticated” in its implementation of Legal Services Board diversity rules, a significant study has concluded.

Chambers carrying out immigration work have voiced a “unanimous and strong opinion” that they “repeatedly experience poor standards of service from solicitors”, a Bar Standards Board report has found. Complaints included “delays and outright failure” to pay barristers.

Barristers have complained that the decision of their regulator to make public the risk of commercial pressures damaging the Bar could on its own have a negative impact on the profession’s reputation. There are also reports of “growing anxiety” among young barrister about chambers being run as corporate organisations.