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A critical review of the decision in Hall v Simmons to remove advocates' immunity from suit. This review seeks to provide an analysis of the arguments made by counsel in the case, whilst looking at the effect the removal has had over the last 17 years. It pays special reference to the difference to civil and criminal jurisdictions, considers the abuse of process doctrine and analyses if the removal of the immunity has caused issues in relation to the ethics of the Bar, notably partisanship, neutrality and the cab-rank rule.

The Bar of England & Wales is an historic, traditional institution of courtroom advocates and specialist advisers that can trace its origins back to the 13th century. As a field of study, there is comparatively little academic work on barristers. Where work has been done on the Bar, and in relation to diversity it the Bar, this has tended to focus either wholly or primarily on women barristers and suggests patterns of inequality, exclusion and forms of direct and indirect discrimination. Like the other branches of the legal profession in England and Wales, the Bar does not reflect the society it serves. In their world-first research, ‘Sexuality at the Bar’, Mason and Vaughan show a variety of complex practices which govern where (and when and how) LGBT+ members of the Bar feel comfortable being open about their sexuality as well as highlighting a significant number of LGBT+ barristers who have experienced work related bullying and/or discrimination. Their work also suggests an increasing role for Bar-specific LGBT+ networks and the value of LGBT+ role models, both at the Bar and in the judiciary.

THE PROJECT
In 2016, Mason and Vaughan launched an online survey to capture the career experiences of LGBT+ members of the Bar. This was completed by 126 practising barristers, Queens Counsel, pupils (barrister trainees), and students taking the pre-vocational Bar Professional Training Course. The survey focused on four main areas: (i) homophobia in the workplace (ii) if (and how and where) barristers were ‘out’ at
work; (iii) the potential connections between sexuality and practice; and (iv) the purpose of LGBT+ networks and role models. Following the survey, Mason and Vaughan used the data they had captured to build a range of questions for semi-structured interviews. 38 of these took place in the latter half of 2016: 2 with pupil barristers; 4 with students; 5 with QCs; and 27 with barristers.

This (summary) paper returns to the original gentrification paper by Ruth Glass as a way into the continuing and somewhat unsatisfactory gentrification debate. It does so within the framework of the 'reflective practitioner'  and the theoretical ideas of Henri Lefebvre. Some urgency is required because accusations of the evil that is gentrification are having an impact, I think unhelpfully on regeneration policy and practice in the UK and elsewhere. The paper starts with a critical engagement with Ruth Glass’ gentrification before considering ‘community and mixed communities -led regeneration. Since the 1970s the term gentrification has been used in a wholly derogatory way to signify harmful social change related to the operation of the housing market. This makes impartial evaluation of the processes and outcomes involved difficult indeed. Local authorities have taken the brunt of the criticisms although government has also been implicated. It is important to consider the original piece that coined the term because, although it is decades old, several of the arguments apply today, especially those regarding the so called displacement impacts of gentrification. The paper explores issues of gentrification and estate regeneration through a case study of the Aylesbury (public housing) Estate in central London and explores too the issues raised when an academic takes on a planning consultancy role involving work over a year long period.

How can we account for the differing popular images of attorney in various countries? One way of doing so may be to bring a paradigm developed in religious studies to examine the most publically accessible and prototypical venue for attorneys, the courtroom. Specifically, applying the model of critical spatial studies developed by Lefebvre and Soja in order to examine religious ritual space to bear on a different kind of ritual space, the courtroom, its structure, organization, and use may illuminate both societal understandings of how the law relates to the citizen, but also inform the differing perception and status of lawyers in the United States, Britain, and China.

The distinction between solicitors and barristers is a traditional feature of English legal systems, including Australia’s. There are many aspects to the solicitor-barrister relationship. In some ways the relationship is symbiotic. However, two Discipline Applications brought against solicitors in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in 2013 show that disputes can arise between solicitors and barristers that can have serious consequences for the legal practitioner found to have acted unethically.

The Legal Services Act 2007 provided a framework for a liberalised marketplace for legal services. The most significant responses to this by the Bar appear in the Bar Standards Board Handbook, which was first released in January 2014. This included changes allowing for barristers to engage in litigation and enabling the Bar Standards Board to regulate entities rather than just individual barristers. This article places these changes within the existing theoretical understanding of the legal professions and professionalism, and argues that they open the door for a significant shift in the way that the discourse of professionalism is used in relation to the Bar.

The criminal defence lawyer is perhaps the most publicly identifiable and controversial figure in the criminal justice system, and is considered by many to represent the cornerstone of adversarial criminal justice. However, there is significant evidence that the context within which criminal defence lawyers operate in England and Wales is rapidly, and fundamentally, changing. Using a wide range of theoretical literature and commentary, the thesis begins by exploring theoretical constructions of the defence lawyer's role, and proceeds to an assessment of whether the traditional, theoretical, conception of the role remains relevant and useful in the context of the 21st century. It continues with an extensive exploration of modern, formal, regulation governing criminal defence lawyers in England and Wales, including relevant legislation, case law and professional conduct rules. The thesis aims to explore ethical conflicts in criminal defence work by identifying and analysing tensions between the various obligations owed by the defence lawyer. All of these issues are explored in the context of ‘real-life’ criminal defence practice through an empirical study, using the novel ‘vignette technique’ to simulate ethical conflicts that defence lawyers might face. Having explored theoretical, formal and practical conceptions of the defence role, the thesis draws conclusions about the usefulness and relevance of theory to the modern role, whether that theory is reflected both in formal regulation and in practice, and whether ethical conflicts pose a significant barrier to the functioning of the defence lawyer's role. Finally, using the research data, the thesis raises questions about the continuing validity of adversarial conceptions of criminal procedure in England and Wales, and makes proposals concerning the future of theoretical debate relating to the role of the criminal defence lawyer.