Profession
Top lawyers are shunning opportunities to join the Bench, which many view as old fashioned and underpaid.
Six recently appointed High Court judges and 29 highly qualified barristers and solicitors contributed to reserach into "attractiveness" of senior judicial appointments. The results were published last week by the Judicial Executive Board.
The difficulty of persuading top ranking lawyers to graduate to the High Court bench was highlighted by one female interviewee who commented: "I have no interest in fulltime appointment. It is the conditions of service. Fivefold reduction in income. Less control over professional life and I would feel bound to go on circuit.
"The idea of spending the next 15 years of my life being a High Court Judge doing rubbish work is frankly too depressing to contemplate."
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, says he is confident that concerns such as "working in an old fashioned, fustian atmosphere" are based on misapprehensions about life as High Court judge. He adds that one of the most striking features of the judiciary is the warm collegiate support that they offer each other. He also defended the circuit system claiming that few of the practitioners interviewed had reliable information regarding what circuit life entailed.
