CIRCUITEER – SPRING 2008:CIRCUITEER 22/4/08 12:02 Page 1 Issue 26 The Circuiteer News from the South Eastern Circuit Spring 2008 Diversity and The Bar Neuberger and Women The Rocky Road Squaring the at the Bar to Silk Circle Page 8-9 Page 12-13 Page 19 CIRCUITEER – SPRING 2008:CIRCUITEER 22/4/08 12:02 Page 2 A Note from the Editor the Bar as did those who come from what is now not be forgotten. A reminder of our connection called a traditional background. As late as 2003, I with our legal colleagues abroad was the third heard the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, tell the annual Dame Ann Ebsworth Lecture, where Justice House of Commons Committee of the Lord Scalia of the United States Supreme Court Chancellor’s Department that since there was now challenged a packed audience in Inner Temple Hall gender equality at admission to the Bar, equality at with his views of judicial construction of the the senior levels and on the bench would naturally American Bill of Rights. follow. Shortly after that he lost his job and the Closer to home, our expert on all matters of Judicial Appointments Board was born. We all criminal law, Professor David Ormerod, returns to remember that at its birth the JAC had a tough job explain the new Act on corporate manslaughter. persuading people that choosing on merit and Tom Sharpe, Q.C., takes time off from his journeys promoting diversity were not incompatible. In the around French vineyards to describe the event, they have had a tougher job than that, living development of competition law in this country. The planning of each issue of The Circuiteer has up to the expectations of Parliament. The selection of Queen’s Counsel is much debated begun with an editorial board meeting and each There is only so much the Circuit can do but it in this issue; Max Hill, Q.C., the Circuit’s former issue has had a theme. Usually these meetings can help to change attitudes and expectations. Recorder, gives the inside story on what it was like consist of four or five of us crowding into my ‘Against the odds’ the Circuit event on October 28, to apply in the last round. Hugh Vass gives us a cramped room at The City Law School. This time it will attempt to do just that. Mohammed Khamisa, realistic view of the latest circuit town, Ipswich. took place in the vaster surroundings of Furnival Q. C., who is organising it, explains why it is The spring issue always advertises the Street where Fiona Jackson, already aware of the happening and what will take place. important upcoming Circuit events: the annual plans for the autumn Bar Conference, suggested In January 2007, Geoffrey Vos, Q.C., as dinner on June 27, the trip to Lisbon, Keble and the Diversity and the Bar. This fit ideally into something Chairman of the Bar, told me in interview that the Florida advocacy courses. I have taken on the role the Circuit Leader, David Spens, Q.C., had said at a Bar should reflect the society it represents. Not of book reviewer. committee meeting. He noted that the make up of everyone agreed with him. However, Karon Finally, and at the beginning of this issue, we those present bore little relation to the face of the Monaghan, Q. C., who served on the Neuberger remember that the Bar is part of the wider legal Bar which he saw every day at court. Working Party and Emily Radcliffe who here deals system. We are happy to include a word from one Over 30 years ago, my pupil master passed on with retention, show why Geoffrey was right. of our presiders, Mr. Justice Bean, who has been a the advice of his father, who had himself been Childcare has been one of the great barriers to member and friend of the Circuit for a long time. Called in the 1920s. ‘If you are able and you entry and to retention; Jess Connors reports on the As always, I welcome feedback and comments. persevere, you will succeed at the Bar’. He added long overdue plans for a Bar Nursery. I would like to thank the Bar Council, for the use of (and I paraphrase), ‘if you don’t have a sense of Even as we sort out our own house, we keep an the photographs which they commissioned to judgment, don’t bother’. The Bar was then very eye on the outside world. Dorothea Gartland illustrate the diversity of the Bar, and those who largely made up of able, sensible white men. Until explains the fascinating interplay of English and appear in them. very recently it continued to operate as if able, Sharia law and the capacity to marry. Sappho Dias sensible women, blacks and Asians would join on updates us on the work of the Burma Justice David Wurtzel some sort of level playing field and would remain at Committee and on why the plight of Burma must [email protected] Table of Contents A Note from the Editor, page 2 The Rocky Road to Silk, pages 12-13 Capacity, Comity and Consent, pages 22-23 Leader’s Column, pages 3-4 Women and Retention at the Bar, page 14 Competition Law Comes of Age, A Presider Remembers, page 5 page 24 Florida, page 15 Against the odds, pages 6-7 Lisbon, page 25 The Third Annual The Neuberger Report and Dame Ann Ebsworth Lecture, A Circuit Town – Ipswich, page 26 Women at the Bar, pages 16-18 pages 8-9 Annual Dinner, page 27 Squaring the Circle, page 19 Burma: The Shameful Silence, page 10 Book Reviews, pages 28-29 Kicking the Corporate Soul – Florida, page 11 at Last, pages 20-21 Bar Mess Reports, pages 30-31 2 The Circuiteer CIRCUITEER – SPRING 2008:CIRCUITEER 22/4/08 12:02 Page 3 Leader’s Column people on to it so that it better reflects the You will note from the Chairman’s letter of Circuit’s diversity. 7th March that amendments to the contract One of our concerns, shared by the Chairman included the clarification of several key clauses of the Bar, is that too few people from black and which made the terms of the contract less minority ethnic backgrounds are being appointed onerous. However, you will also observe later in as Q.C.s, Recorders or to full time judicial this column that the respite from increased appointments. If our judiciary and the senior access to electronic diary provision was not ranks of our profession do not yet reflect society’s regarded by the LSC as a long term commitment. make up, they will need to do so in the future, in The rates in the contract remained the same order to instil public confidence in the judicial as those previously proposed by the LSC in system. Tim Dutton, Q.C., has asked each Circuit January, when only 130 barristers signed the to appoint a mentor to encourage those from contract. Those rates, for work in the most diverse backgrounds to apply for these positions, complex cases, have always been regarded by the and – on a confidential basis – to assist them in Bar Council as unacceptably low. It remains the making their applications. Mohammed has also Bar Council’s view that this is a flawed scheme, taken on this role. based upon hourly rates, which fails to incentivise People from diverse backgrounds, quality, efficiency, teamwork and expedient irrespective of race, colour, religion, disability, handling of cases. gender or sexual orientation, are already In particular, you will see that the revised members of both small and large sets on this contract allows the instruction of non-panel One Bar Circuit. What I want to encourage is their greater advocates if there is no Panel Advocate available. At all times, and especially in difficult times, it is participation in the affairs of the Circuit, which is You should be aware that the highest rate payable important that the Bar speaks with one voice. To best achieved by standing for election to the is the same as under the contract, but what the achieve such cohesion the Bar Council must committee in the autumn. non-panel advocate is actually paid is a matter for represent the views of the profession as a whole. With this in mind, the Circuit will host an negotiation between the advocate and the It must be democratic, representative, and event in October: ‘Against the Odds – a solicitor. It is the solicitor and not the LSC who inclusive. This also requires members of the celebration of Equality and Diversity’. The main will be responsible for initially receiving and then profession to participate in the process and to speaker will be the Attorney General, The Rt. Hon. paying the advocate’s fees. If the rate agreed is make their voices heard. Baroness Scotland, Q.C. less than the rate payable to a Panel Advocate by This ambition was very much a part of the the LSC the solicitor pockets the difference. It inaugural address last December of Tim Dutton, The third Ebsworth Memorial seems difficult to reconcile this approach with the Q.C., as the new Chairman of the Bar. Steps have Lecture assertion of David Keegan, Director of HCC been taken to improve communication between The third Dame Ann Ebsworth Memorial Lecture Contracting at the LSC, that the new scheme ‘will the Bar Council and the profession. Before any took place on February 5, in Inner Temple Hall.