Tag Results

Our latest round-up of other news of interest to Legal Futures readers includes a survey of among larger firms about ABS intentions, a lay majority on the BSB, women lawyers convinced male colleagues are paid more, good news for a big LPO provider and much more.

My recent blog on whether the Bar Standards Board (BSB) sometimes seems to take too pro-barrister a position for a public interest regulator certainly provoked a response from various people. One barrister saw the fact that the BSB and Bar Council share office space as further evidence of a lack of independence, while it also brought out barristers who simply dislike the BSB generally.

The Inner Temple’s seminar on the future of legal education provided a stimulating finish to last week. It was the first such discussion since the announcement of the review of education and training being conducted jointly by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Bar Standards Board and ILEX Professional Standards, under the beady eye of the Legal Services Board.

Two-thirds of barristers’ chambers which provide legal services to the Crown Prosecution Service are failing to meet equality and diversity standards, it has emerged in the first survey of its kind. Speaking at a Bar Standards Board event, Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said he supported the BSB’s desire to make its diversity rules obligatory.

Lord Justice Thomas is heading a new expert group to advise the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Bar Standards Board and ILEX Professional Standards on developing and operating the controversial quality assurance for advocates scheme, it has emerged. Meanwhile, the BSB has hit out again at the Legal Services Board’s “unhelpful and ill-timed” intervention over the scheme.