Anticipating a deepening recession, and the 60^th anniversary of the passing of the Legal Aid Act in July 1949, Mr Browne commented:

“It is at times like these, when the fabric of our society is under such severe financial pressure that more than ever the services of publicly funded criminal and family practitioners are required. Social pressures put the livelihoods, the homes and the family lives of the economically vulnerable directly on the line, and they are entitled to look to our profession as the first line of defence.”

Browne remains staunch in his support of the Bar’s cab-rank rule, too:

 “The rule is, and should remain, the hallmark of the barrister in self-employed practice.”

He also expressed concern at moves to cut family legal aid, in particular, at a time when there is such concern over the need to protect children from harm.

“This is not an area, which can simply be abandoned to the direction of market forces – any more than one would dream of doing so in the NHS.”

This was being exacerbated by a steep increase in court fees: in child care cases these have recently rise from £150 to nearly £5,000, deterring many cash strapped councils from intervening to protect a child at risk from abuse: “If the trend has just recently reversed, it is desperately sad that it should have taken a case like Baby P to cause that.”

On high cost criminal cases – VHCCS – Mr Browne has pledged the Bar to continue to oppose hourly rates as creating a perverse incentive, “particularly when those rates are set so dismally low”.

Browne endorses the Ministry of Justice’s creation of an interim scheme of improved payments at no extra cost to the taxpayer. But he warns that more needs to be done:

“Individual barristers need to be convinced that a workable, improved scheme will replace the existing one when it expires on 13 July 2009, and, above all, one which pays a fair rate for the job. It is of the essence of such a scheme that it rewards the efficient and the expeditious, rather than those who merely clock up the largest number of hours.”

Quality, not just cost, needs to be a criterion in the award of defence as well as prosecution work, and Browne calls on the Legal Services Commission to mirror the Crown Prosecution Service’s efforts to address this area.

In this context, he acknowledges that poor funding for litigators has acted as a stimulus to law firms to use in-house Higher Court Advocates (HCAs) to represent clients in court even if those HCAs may not have the requisite experience.

“Lack of proper funding cannot be allowed to unbalance, still less pervert, the system. We understand the anxieties of the Law Society and its members. We fully support an early and profound review of the litigators’ fee scheme.”

Browne also used his speech to flag up the importance of the £220m contribution the Bar makes each year to the UK’s overseas earnings.

He indicated that he will meet the Financial Services Secretary Lord Myners early in the New Year to explore ways of further promoting English commercial law as the global business law of choice, saying:

“Our jurisdiction is well-suited to become the choice location for resolving a wide range of international and national disputes, which will arise out of the recession and the global banking crisis, as much by arbitration as by litigation. This itself can become one of the drivers for a return to growth in the financial and services sector generally.”

Welcoming the appointment of Ruth Deech and Geoffrey Nice QC to be the new Chair and Vice Chair respectively of the Bar Standards Board, Desmond Browne said:

“In the Bar Standards Board, we have a strong, independent and cost-effective model of self-regulation. It has been quick to tackle vexed issues, such as deferral of call and legal disciplinary practices, while setting out an ambitious reform agenda in areas like the Bar Vocational Course and the Code of Conduct. The BSB is ideally suited to take its place within the new regulatory architecture conceived by the Legal Services Act.”

A particular goal for 2009 will be the continued implementation of Lord Neuberger’s wide-ranging proposals aimed at securing a diverse and inclusive profession.  Making the profession attractive to those who would not normally consider it is a key aim of the Bar’s work with the Social Mobility Foundation. And he will praise the recent BBC2 documentary series The Barristers for helping to “demolish the myths around the Bar”.

Chief among Desmond Browne’s concerns is the need to retain women practitioners in the profession: “There is too much evidence of heads banging against glass ceilings”. Browne said that the proposal for a Bar nursery is one concrete step designed to address this issue.

“Today more than ever, the Bar needs to display unity.”

In conclusion, the incoming Chairman made an appeal for a united profession. And on the difficult issue of the amount of advocacy work being done ‘in-house’ by the Crown Prosecution Service, Browne said that there is nothing wrong in principle with in-house barristers conducting such work.

However, he challenged the incoming Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, to show that using in-house advocates is cost-effective, provides the same quality and does not compromise the diversity of the self-employed Bar. 

“We have a joint interest in high standards. The DPP’s intended introduction of a common grading system for both internal and external advocates has much to recommend it.”

Phillip Taylor

Barrister Desk Editor