2010

13 May 2010 - COMBAR, the Bar European Group, the Criminal Bar Association and London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association (LCLCBA) have joined forces with the Bar Council’s International Committee to offer their members of 7 years call or less, who are in employed or self-employed practice, financial assistance to participate in international legal events and conferences of their choice which contribute to their professional development and legal practice.

30 April 2010 - The Chairmen of the Bar and the Criminal Bar Association have today written a joint letter on cuts to Graduated Fees.

29 April 2010 - The Bar Council, the Approved Regulator for barristers in England and Wales, has begun a three-month consultation on new terms of engagement of barristers for solicitors.

27 April 2010 - The Chairman of the Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, has reacted angrily to the deep cuts to publicly funded criminal barristers’ fees, which come into force today. From today, barristers’ fixed fees for criminal defence will be cut by a total of 13.5% over the next 3 years starting with an immediate cut of 4.5%. These cuts are contained in legislation rushed through Parliament by the Ministry of Justice the day after the Easter break, the same day the election was announced.

26 April 2010 - The Bar Council of England and Wales, has launched a model for new business structures for the Bar, dubbed ‘ProcureCo’. This follows historic rule changes made by the Bar’s independent regulatory arm, the Bar Standards Board (BSB), which gave barristers the ability to provide their services in different ways and to structure themselves in ways which had previously been prohibited.

23 April 2010 - Summary of key points of interest to the Bar in the manifestos. This note summarises the key points in the manifestos of the three main political parties which may be of interest to the Bar. It is intended that this should be non-partisan and the Bar Council as an organisation is not aligning itself to any particular political party.

9 April 2010 - The Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association have today issued a joint response to the Ministry of Justice Consultation.

1 April 2010 - The Legal Services Board approves Bar Standards Board applications designed to relax provisions in Code of Conduct for barristers’ working practices.