Tag Results

Barristers could end up uninsured and in financial hardship if they agree to variations of their new standard terms of contract recommended by the Law Society, the Bar Council has warned. It said it was “surprised and disappointed” at the tone of Chancery Lane’s practice note.

The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates is illogical in its treatment of QCs and does not serve the public interest by allowing solicitors to act as plea-only advocates, the chairman of the Bar Council has argued. The claims come as the bodies representing criminal law solicitors and barristers united in calling for a halt to the scheme.

The government does not intend to extend legal professional privilege to non-lawyers, the Ministry of Justice confirmed yesterday after accountants urged Parliament to level the playing field for multi-disciplinary entities.

Only a handful of the 15,000-plus members of the Bar have disclosed information such as whether they went to public or state schools, in a snub to the chairs of the Bar and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) who had personally requested it.

It has been a week of strong words. First of all we had Bar Council chairman Michael Todd QC sounding off about the Legal Services Board, and then on Tuesday Solicitors Regulation Authority chairman Charles Plant was uncompromising about his view of the “small but significant” number of solicitors who are not good enough to be in practice. Let’s start with Mr Plant, who does like to drop the occasional grenade to liven things up. In some ways it is hardly controversial to suggest that out of nearly 130,000 practising solicitors, there are some bad apples – but the problem appears a lot bigger than that.