Legal Profession
News, analysis, comment and updates from ICLR's case law and UK legislation platform
Guest post by David Burrows Confidentiality, privilege and the Panama papers The leak of information from a firm of Panama lawyers – the Panama papers – raises a variety of questions for English lawyers, notably in the areas of confidentiality and of legal professional privilege (LPP). Papers held by a lawyer are confidential –… Continue reading about Panama papers: take legal professional privilege and a little iniquity…
What does diversity look like in the legal profession? How can law firms do more to encourage applicants from less privileged backgrounds? Are there relevant differences between law firms and their corporate clients, such as Tesco or the National Grid? Are there regulatory constraints which prevent the professions from opening up different ways in? These… Continue reading about PRIME – Opening up the legal profession
The continued reduction in legal aid in cases involving family law, housing disputes etc, means that many people going to court are finding they have no choice but to represent themselves or try to get some help from someone other than an expensive lawyer. One such resource is a ‘McKenzie friend’. In this post we… Continue reading about McKenzie Friends: a litigant’s guide
What’s the difference between a “law report” and a “transcript”? This is one of those questions where the answer is as obvious to some as it is inconspicuous to others. It is also a question that may, quite reasonably, strike some as a bit pedantic. However, there is a distinction and it doesn’t hurt to… Continue reading about What’s the difference between a “law report” and a “transcript”?
How should judges communicate with the public? Should they, as that exemplary Conservative Lord Chancellor Lord Kilmuir exhorted them back in the 1950s, remain silent and aloof, preserving their mystique (and that of the law), or should they “descend into the arena” and take up arms with the media on their own turf, seeking to… Continue reading about Trappists v Spinners: shaping the legal discourse
Fiona Woolf, who has been appointed to chair the government inquiry into historic child sex abuse (CSA), recently appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons, effectively to answer the charge that she was not a suitable or proper person to undertake the role. She was appointed after the resignation of… Continue reading about CSA Inquiry – will chair be shown the door?
Given the popularity of social media among members of the legal profession, particularly Twitter (an ideal medium for the robust adversarial exchange of views), it is not surprising that regulatory bodies should wish to promote its use in a responsible and professional manner. This post was updated on 12 July 2014. The International Bar Association… Continue reading about Principles on social media conduct for lawyers
Barristers’ Working Lives: a second biennial survey of the Bar (2013) was jointly published by the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board on 18 June. In this post, we look at some of the results and implications of this snapshot of life at the Bar. In particular, we look at the effect of cuts in… Continue reading about Life at the Bar: A North-South Divide?
Yesterday the Court of Appeal roundly allowed an appeal by the prosecuting authority and the Secretary of State for Justice (intervening, or as some might suggest, interfering) against the trial judge’s decision to stay a major fraud case by reason of the unavailability of counsel for five legally aided defendants. The case has aroused a… Continue reading about PDS, PDQ! Operation Cotton and Operation (saving the MOJ’s) Bacon
By Tim Thomas, 1 Pump Court In his speech to Justice on 3rd March 2014 Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd CJ addressed what he sees as the challenge of ensuring the quality of justice is not diminished by the cuts to Legal Aid when those cuts are likely, he suggested, to remain permanent. Putting aside any… Continue reading about Transforming criminal justice: a response to the Lord Chief Justice’s proposals
