Deech encourages more tweeting and blogging
updated on 25 September 2012
The chair of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has urged members to embrace the world of social media in order to, among other things, improve communication on controversial issues.
Legal Futures reports that Baroness Deech has suggested that the Bar should use Twitter and blogs more often as a counterbalance to negative publicity from other media sources. Her comments are thought to be partly in response to her appearance on Radio Four's Today programme, where she was quizzed about a "failure in administration" of barristers' disciplinary tribunals and faced with allegations of "secrecy and incompetence".
In sharp contrast to recent advice to judges not to blog, Deech said that using social media had real advantages for the Bar: "We should be doing more of it, because of the speed of getting out our version of events. Once the wrong story gets a hold, it's very hard to dislodge - you've got to deny it within minutes otherwise it's all over the place."
In other Bar news, the Bar Council has published its first ever representational report. Driven by a need for greater accountability and transparency, the report includes information on what the Bar has been doing in relation to lobbying, training and social mobility. Click here to read the full report.
