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​Rising to the challenge

20 January 2017 / Andrew Langdon KC
Issue: 7730 / Categories: Opinion , Profession
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Andrew Langdon QC sets out his aims & aspirations for his tenure as Chairman of the Bar 2017

 

I come to the Chairmanship in 2017 from the perspective of a Circuiteer initially drawn in to the Bar Council by the fight against legal aid cuts, now with my eyes open to other changes to the landscape upon which our still small profession operates. While we will withstand the challenges we face—as we have always done—we nonetheless need to identify and meet them, especially when, as presently they appear to deter the recruitment and viability of the junior Bar.

An ageing profession

I am struck by the fact that as a profession we are ageing. The statistics show that every five years since 1990 the size of the profession overall has increased, but in the last 10 years the number of those in practice under 10 years’ call has slightly decreased, more markedly so for those under five years’ call. One suspects that withdrawal and reduction of legal aid funding, the changes to the

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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