I read today that aspiring barristers will have to prove their fluency in English before being offered a place at Bar school.  The pilot exams – aimed at preventing applicants with mediocre linguistic abilities from winning a place – will be introduced later this month and will also test analytical and critical thinking skills. The [...]

Anthony Spaeight QC told barristers to stop calling themselves members of a “referral profession”.  His comments made at the 2009 annual Bar Conference in London recently suggested that the referral profession tag concealed the “most important characteristics and qualities of the Bar”.  Instead, he felt that barristers should refer to themselves as “the legal profession’s specialist [...]

The Times has compiled a list of the top 100 lawyers in 2009. The top 10 reads as follows: 1) Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, senior law lord 2) Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice 3) Jack Straw, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice 4) Lord Bingham of Cornhill, retired senior law lord 5) [...]

Andrew Walker of Maitland Chambers, solicitors from housing charity Shelter, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, together acted pro bono to save a family from eviction of their home of 20 years. In the process they obtained the first large Section 194 “pro bono costs order”, requiring the losing party to pay £20,000 to the Access [...]