What is it the Bar Council does? Here's a glimpse of just some of the work we have done in May 2017. 

  1. The Value of Justice, the Bar Council's Manifesto for Justice was published and circulated to all Parliamentary Candidates standing in the General Election.    

  2. It its meeting on Saturday 20 May 2017 the Bar Council decided to invite the adoption of a new Court Sitting Hours' Protocol for all hearings in the High Court, County Courts, Crown Courts, Magistrates' Courts and Tribunals.

  3. The Bar Council gave its backing to the The Lawyer Portal (TLP) a new education resource aimed at those considering a career in law. The Lawyer Portal has been developed with direct input from experienced lawyers and legal education professionals, and features contributions from the Bar Council and other professional bodies and law firms.  

  4. Barristers from IKEA, the RAF, United Nations and the ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) were amongst those shortlisted by the Bar Council for the first ever Employed Bar Awards. 

  5. Chair of the Bar, Andrew Langdon QC, led a delegation of barristers to meet with Polish advocates in Warsaw today to exchange experiences in conducting cross-border criminal and family cases at an English-Polish Law Day, which was organised by the Bar Council the Warsaw Bar Association and the Polish Bar Foundation and the Bar Council of England and Wales.  

  6. Changes to rules on parental leave by the Bar Standards Board were described by Chair of the Bar, Andrew Langdon QC, as "a watershed moment" for the profession. The new rules will enable self-employed barristers to benefit from equal parental leave entitlements provided by chambers, regardless of how their partners use theirs.

  7. The keynote speakers for the 32nd Annual Bar & Young Bar Conference on November 4 2017 were announced as tickets for the main event in the Bar's calendar went on sale. The Lord Chancellor and The Rt Hon Lady Justice Hallett, Vice President of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division are among those in the speaking line-up. 

  8. The Bar Council exhibited at The Business Show in London for the second year running. The Bar Council promoted the work and value of the Bar at the event, which so more than 20,000 businesses attend. 

  9. Andrew Langdon QC, Chair of the Bar, joined other Bar leaders at the International Bar Association Leaders' conference in Belfast, where key challenges and opportunities facing the profession and the legal sector were discussed.

  10. Ministry of Justice plans to pilot flexible court sitting hours were met with warnings from Chair of the Bar, Andrew Langdon QC, who said: "These arrangements will make it almost impossible for parents with childcare responsibilities to predict if they can make the school run or to know when they will be able to pick children up from the child-minders."