The Chairman's Blog

Welcome back to all of you who have recently returned from a well deserved break. Unfortunately commitments at the Bar Council have necessitated a postponement of my summer holiday until 2009! I was however lucky enough to travel to Manhattan to attend the American Bar Association’s annual conference (Desmond Browne QC has also represented the Bar at the Canadian equivalent). I addressed the ABA conference on the topic of International Law and more specifically the Rule of Law. In presenting my speech I borrowed from Lord Bingham’s Rule of Law Lecture and emphasised the need for all states to adhere to the fundamental principle and the 8 “sub-rules”. Events in Georgia and elsewhere around the globe serve to remind us all of the importance the Rule of Law plays in our society.

Back on UK soil some familiar issues persist. Work on an alternative VHCC scheme continues albeit at a much slower pace than was first hoped. I have very recently had a productive meeting with Jack Straw, the Law Society, and the LSC on this issue. Jack Straw fully appreciates the urgency that is required and the need to make firm practical steps forward. VHCC cases are now coming on stream with no or inadequate representation available. Delay in these cases is, of course, something that needs to be avoided in the public interest. I fully appreciate that the time it is taking to finalising an alternative scheme is hitting criminal practitioners hard. Please be assured that we have a very experienced team working extremely hard on producing a result. In the meantime I am working with the LSC and others to try to secure an interim solution.

The first of two consultations on Family legal aid has been submitted to the LSC. I must express my thanks to Lucy Theis QC and her team within the FLBA for all of their hard work on this paper. I would also like to thank Debora Price for providing her invaluable statistical expertise to the Bar which has informed the FLBA’s work. As you would expect, the response firmly advocates the Bar’s position and will give the LSC much food for thought. The dialogue between the FLBA and the LSC will continue in advance of the second consultation paper on one case one fee which is expected in October.

The Bar Conference will be held on Saturday 1 November and I strongly urge the profession to give this event their full support with Lord Bingham and the Attorney General being amongst the speakers. Could all of those interested in taking part please ensure you register with the Bar Conference Board as soon as possible. More information about the event is available on this website.

Finally, the second in a series of diversity round-table events will take place on 23 October, this time discussing gender and retention of women in the profession. Ingrid Simler QC and the Equality and Diversity Committee are working hard with Equality and Diversity Officers in preparation for this event. I am optimistic that the meeting will provide the impetuous finally for more practical steps to be taken towards breaking the glass ceiling. Retaining our women practitioners is essential for the Bar to thrive. More needs to be done in order to ensure retention at higher levels within the profession and indeed onwards into the judiciary.

Timothy Dutton QC

ABS
I am grateful to all of you who took the time to respond to my recent letter on Alternative Business Structures. We received a total of 93 responses, 20 of which were submitted by Heads of Chambers or on behalf of Chambers. The basic statistical break down makes for some interesting reading:
32.3% of respondents preferred to keep the status quo, 44.1% preferred to adopt the intermediate option set out in our full response, 23.6% preferred the revocation on rule 205, and an overwhelming 85.7% wished to retain the cab rank rule.

The results plainly demonstrate the wide divergence of views that the Bar holds on this important issue. The BSB has been provided with these figures together with the fuller responses received from various sections of the Bar. We will be meeting with BSB representatives shortly to discuss this matter in more detail and will continue to monitor progress in this area closely.

Public funding
Many of you will be aware that the LSC has recently released another consultation paper, this time relating to Family Legal Aid. Broadly speaking, the LSC is looking to make savings of £13million over two years on a spend of just under £100million. The Bar Council has significant reservations about this cut and the adverse effect it will have on quality as a whole and particularly the impact that it will be felt by the junior Bar. It is essential that we ensure quality practitioners remain at the Family Bar and we will be do our utmost to promote the Bar’s position over the coming months. We have set up a Bar Council Working Group, with strong FLBA representation, to address this paper and have already attended a preliminary meeting with the MoJ and LSC officials. In addition we have also retained Professor Martin Chalkley who will be working overtime to analyse the statistical information that has been provided by the LSC.

All of the above comes hot on the heels of our continued work in relation to VHCCs, BVT, and Confiscation Hearings. In relation to VHCCs, we are aiming to have a workable skeleton scheme by 8 July 2008, which if agreed in principle can be developed for wider consultation. I must express my gratitude to Desmond Browne QC, Michael Bowes QC and their team for all of the relentless hard work on this issue. I am grateful also to Jack Straw who has taken an active interest in developing a workable scheme and is providing positive support from the MoJ.

I have recently met with the AG and the DPP to discuss, amongst other things, HHJ Mole’s decision in R v P. All parties agreed that a repeat of these events must be avoided and a sensible solution needs to be found quickly. Presently Tony Shaw QC, Andrew Mitchell QC, and others are addressing this issue and I am confident that a practical solution to this problem will be found in the not too distant future. It is no-one’s interest for a resolution to be delayed.

Diversity
Finally, one of the biggest challenges facing the modern Bar relates to diversity, access to the profession, and retention at it. It is of particular concern that we ensure the Bar is properly represented by female and BME practitioners. Over the coming months we will be working closely with the Neuberger Working Group, the Equality and Diversity team, and others to ensure positive steps are taken to address these important issues. In addition, plans are currently afoot to introduce a Bar Nursery. Presently I am seeking Inns support to the Bar Nursery Association’s scheme. The Nursery will represent welcome support for practitioners with young families and will hopeful provide an incentive to keep young women in the profession during their childbearing years. I must express thanks to Kate Grange, Jess Connors and their team for all of the hard work they have, and continue to, put into this important scheme.

Timothy Dutton QC

Work in response to the BSB’s Consultation on the Legal Services Act (LSA) is drawing to a close. The Working Group’s draft response was recently presented to the Bar Council (BC) on 10 May and is available on this web site. The paper evoked a number of well informed comments from the floor and some helpful suggestions were put forward. I have recently circulated a letter through the Circuits and SBAs that aims to encapsulate the core issues facing practitioners and calls for feedback from the wider Bar. I strongly encourage members of the profession to turn their minds to this letter, having read the full response, and provide any thoughts or comments promptly by 30th May. It is, after all, a topic that has historic importance for the Bar, and the way in which we supply our services.

Some of you will be aware that I, together with a small BC delegation, have recently completed a successful visit to the Gulf States of Qatar, Dubai, and Bahrain. We received a very warm welcome from the many institutional and legal representatives we met in a hectic schedule. We left with a strong feeling of optimism. I am in no doubt that the Bar has a significant role to play in the future development of these States. The level of development in the region is absolutely staggering. Qatar, a country with an indigenous population of a mere 180,000, is simultaneously building over 180 skyscrapers. I can see great room for development in areas of commercial, construction, money laundering, financial regulation, family and professional advisory work. It is important to appreciate that the Bar’s contribution to these burgeoning economies should not be viewed as London centric. For example, criminal practitioners with the appropriate money laundering expertise will be in an excellent position to provide assistance in the regulatory market. Christian Wisskirchen and his team will now follow up this positive beginning and build on our relationships.

I am glad to report that there has been good progress with the ever-present VHCC issue. The BC met with Jack Straw, Lord Hunt, the Law Society, and the Legal Services Commission (LSC) on 24 April to discuss the concerns. Jack Straw readily accepted the importance of maintaining quality advocacy in these difficult cases. The group agreed that the LSC’s Panel scheme was in need of a solution. Following the meeting, a joint steering group has been established, under the Chairmanship of Desmond Browne QC, and tasked with the responsibility of creating and presenting a more feasible scheme by 8 July. It is a tight timescale but I am confident that the new direction will lead to a scheme which satisfies the win objectives of attracting the most able back into these cases whilst living within financial constraints.

We met again with Jack Straw on 15 May to monitor the progress of the steering group and agreed to meet in late June. In the meantime the statisticians are working very hard on the data to develop a durable sensible scheme.

Thanks in no small part to the good work of Mark Hatcher and his team we have achieved a fair result with the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act. Prior to the Act receiving Royal Assent we were able to secure some important safeguards that will protect the public in cases that are prosecuted by Designated Case Workers (now to be referred to as Associate Prosecutors (AP)) before the Magistrates’ Court. Importantly, APs powers to conduct contested cases in Magistrates’ Courts will be limited to summary only cases and subject to appropriate regulation, following a transitional period, under the LSA, from 1 May 2011. Any extension to the type of case that APs may be permitted to prosecute is now linked explicitly to the implementation of the regulatory framework under the LSA.

Timothy Dutton QC