The Bar Council is this week celebrating a decade of its flagship social mobility initiative, Bar Placement Week, as well as launching a related online campaign, entitled ‘I am the Bar’.

Bar chairman Alistair MacDonald QC has said that there should be a complete ban on all fees paid by barristers to instructing solicitors to prevent attempts to disguise referral fees as administration fees.

At the recent Bar & Young Bar Conference, the chairman of the Bar said that barristers are more than mere “economic actors”, and while not expecting to be popular, they should be valued. 

In his speech to the annual Bar Council conference on 10 November, Bar Council Chair Michael Todd QC lashed out at the over-arching regulatory body.

The Bar Council has extended its outreach programme, the Bar Placement Week, to Liverpool. It has been running in London for eight years, as well as in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Leeds for shorter periods.

The Bar Council is this week hosting the Bar Placement Scheme in conjunction with the Social Mobility Foundation.

A greater level of training for advocates in relation to the questioning of vulnerable witnesses in court is to be introduced in a joint initiative launched by the Bar Council, the Inns of Court, the Law Society, and the CPS.

The Bar Council has been in attendance at both the Labour Party and Conservative Party conferences to deliver its clear message to politicians – namely that "justice is a precious asset which needs to be protected"

The Bar Council and Law Society yesterday issued a joint statement criticising Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s comments on the legal challenges brought against the government for their plans to send asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.

The Bar Council has confirmed that the Bar Placement Week, launched seven years ago in London, has been introduced in Leeds and Manchester for the first time.

The Bar Council, which represents all practising barristers in England and Wales, announced new measures to help domestic abuse victims in family and civil courts. 

The Bar Council has come out in support of a new barrister training programme involving a two-part Bar Professional Course run by the Inns of Court, which should be cheaper for aspiring barristers. 

The Bar Council has come out in support of criminal barristers’ protests for a properly funded criminal justice system, which include plans for strike action.

From 2016 the Bar Council will open the Pupillage Gateway in mid-January, with offers to be made at the beginning of May.

The Bar Council has requested an additional £55 million investment for HM Courts and Tribunals Service to address the increased demand on court staff due to covid-19, among three other short-term “recommendations”.

A statement posted on the Bar Council’s website highlights its support of trans, non-binary and gender-fluid individuals, and urges chambers to recognise that “some people are transgender and not everyone feels that their gender can be defined within the margins of gender binary.”

The Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council has announced the topic for its annual essay competition, sponsored by the Bar Council scholarship trust.

Both undergraduate and postgraduate students considering a career at the Bar are now able to get involved with the Bar Council, benefitting from a number of its services and helping to support its work on access to justice.

The Bar Council has revealed that women and Black employed barristers are most likely to have experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination at work.