Scientologist and actor swoops dramatically into the Temple on a mystery assignment

Leading Scientologist Tom Cruise was spotted today not just perambulating through the streets of London Town, but wandering around the corridors of leading public law and human rights barristers’ chambers One Crown Office Row.

Just what brought the follower of 1950s science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard to the Temple is unknown. But Cruise — who has also appeared in several Hollywood films — appears to be taking a keen interest in something attached to the chambers’ ceiling.

The set’s clerk, John McLaren, tweeted the images this afternoon. And if a report yesterday in the Mail Online is anything to go by, it appears that Cruise is in town to shoot the fifth instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise. That might explain the woolly hat.

Speculation is now rife that the villain of the piece will be a civil liberties silk gone bad. Or perhaps mission impossible is pure and simple a statement on the future of the bar itself.

Not every day that we have Tom Cruise come into @1CrownOfficeRow pic.twitter.com/Fj2vNU5apC

— Andy Tull (@tellytully) February 13, 2015

Images via @John_at_1COR and @tellytully

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Justice Secretary Chris Grayling doled out nearly 100 awards yesterday — but wouldn’t it be better to let the market decide on the top lawyers?

The last few weeks will have been Bolly-tastic down the cutting rooms of a shop that likes to bill itself as London’s oldest tailors.

The run-up to the annual QC ceremony means that all leave is cancelled at outfitters-to-the-legal-stars — Ede & Ravenscroft — as breeches are cut, black stockings wrapped in tissue paper and ribbon and patent leather shoes polished to a military shine.

We English do ceremony so very well — just ask any American, Japanese or even Frenchman kicking their heels on a cold February morning outside Buck House waiting for a guardsman to jeopardise his career by skipping about on the forecourt.

And yesterday it was the turn of the legal profession to take centre stage in the national pageantry as 93 practising lawyers bagged the coveted title of Queen’s Counsel, while four academics, a solicitor and a Ministry of Defence barrister were handed honorary awards.

But does anyone really care? Apart that is from the 99 individuals themselves, their loving families and doubtless their pets and horses. Is the QC title nothing more than professional vanity, with little — if any — practical relevance in either the business world or the cut and thrust of the criminal and public law courts?

A dozen years ago, the process of awarding silk was in disarray. In 2003, then-Lord Chancellor, Derry Irvine, suspended the following year’s appointment round amid a tidal wave of concern that the system was a not-so-thinly-veiled old-boys’ network of patronage.

The process was overhauled — with the creation of a supposedly independent quango, QC Appointments — and the silk road reopened in 2006.

But enthusiasm for the title — even among the legal profession — seems to have waned. This year, there were 50% fewer applications for silk than in 2006.

Why? Perhaps lawyers themselves are coming round to the view that the title is an outmoded trinket that is in some cases more of a millstone.

When defending the QC rank, the Bar Council invokes arguments around the practical usefulness of a quality mark for senior players in the profession. This, it maintains, is helpful for punters, providing them with an easily-recongisable badge of distinction in what would otherwise be an amorphous mass of advocates. The bar hierarchy also draws comparisons with the medical profession and the rank of consultant.

Frankly, that’s nonsense. Medics work in an environment where skills are far more measurable — and what’s more, they can kill patients when things go wrong. So if they fancy a flattering title after slogging it out for years doing 48-hour hospital shifts, who’s complaining?

But lawyers? Many a client might claim to have been driven to contemplate suicide after reading a long-winded and jargon-ridden advice letter or sitting through a tedious conference, but generally punters’ lives are not in the hands of their lawyers.

So why should they among all other professions be afforded the special treatment of what — despite efforts to make the appointments system more transparent — is still more or less a subjective award process?

There are no Queen’s Accountants, Queen’s Architects, Queen’s Cabbies, or, heaven forbid, Queen’s Journalists.

Surely the market should decide on the issue of who are the top performers. And indeed, outside of the rarified ranks of the commercial bar, many practising advocates view the rank of silk as more of a hindrance than a help, undoubtedly explaining why applications have nosedived.

By convention, newly-made up silks are expected to boost their fees. But in a tight and highly competitive market, doing so can kill a practice. Why should clients pay 20% to 30% more for a freshly minted silk, when they could get an equally good senior junior?

Other common law jurisdictions — Australia, New Zealand, Canada and even Ireland — maintain the varying incarnations of the QC badge or its watered down equivalent of senior counsel.

But typically, the US — the biggest common law profession — stands rigidly by a market forces approach. If an advocate is good enough, the clients will come, they will pay top dollar, regardless of whether the lawyer has worn black breeches and a full-bottomed wig for a day before kneeling before a former television producer.

Notably, there isn’t a branch of Ede & Ravenscroft on Fifth Avenue.

Follow @JudgeJohnHack

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Perhaps the former HSBC chairman — who was meant to share stage with Justice Secretary — didn’t fancy a colonic cleansing. Now he scurries for exit amid growing concerns that tax payers and legal profession will pick up bill for white elephant gig

Sometime last year Chris Grayling must have bounced puppy dog-style into his master’s office at Number 10 and barked: “Dave, I’ve got a jolly good idea.”

That brainwave from the Lord Chancellor/Secretary of State for Justice involved a savvy spot of calendar awareness and a moderate knowledge of history.

Why not celebrate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta with a high-profile shindig involving loads of international great-and-good types. Being a former media man, Grayling will have been acutely aware of the PR possibilities of marking the Magna Carta, which is a bit like saying nice things about the dearly departed Queen Mother.

Dave chucked Chris a bone and the Global Law Summit was born. But the Justice Secretary might now wish he’d kept his trap shut.

Legal aid lawyers and others have pilloried the event for being more of a City law firm trade show than a celebration of a cornerstone of the common law. They find it especially hypocritical coming from a government that has slashed legal aid eligibility and seems hell bent on binning the Human Rights Act.

To be fair, ministers could probably take on the chin — or just ignore — criticisms from that side of the legal profession. But they probably wish they hadn’t scheduled former trade minister Lord Green of Hurstpiepoint for the keynote opening session.

Stephen Green — the son of a solicitor — has just stood down from his second gig in almost as many days. Life in the eye of the HSBC Switzerland tax scandal hasn’t been easy on him, with voices asking what he, as the former bank chairman, knew about advising clients in relation to tax avoidance and when he knew it.

First to go was Green’s high-level role with lobbying body CityUK; and at the beginning of this week, it was reported that he had dropped off the list of law summit keynote speakers. He was meant to share the stage with Grayling.

The departures will potentially leave “god’s banker” — Green is an ordained Anglican minister — with more time to attend church services. At the very least, he’ll avoid a raft of bottom jokes. Last week, the summit’s website server collapsed, leaving a holding page advertising colonic irrigation.

Nonetheless, summit delegates will surely be disappointed at Lord Green’s departure — having paid up to £1,750 to attend the event, they’ll be in the mood for as many speakers as they can hear to get their money’s worth. But they will still benefit from the wisdom of Cherie Blair QC.

The wife of former PM Tony Blair used to describe herself as an employment and public law specialist. But for jet-setting summit delegates the silk is promoting her position as “founder and chair of Omnia Strategy LLP, a pioneering international law firm that provides strategic counsel to governments, corporate and private clients”.

However, common or garden lawyers not attending the summit might be less than chuffed to hear that they, along with ordinary tax payers, might be subsidising the glitzy show.

Rumours are swirling around the corridors of the Law Society and Bar Council — which along with the MoJ are underwriting the cost of the gig — that summit finances are on course for a distinctly red hue, despite organiser claims that the event would break even.

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Like the Ritz, Grayling’s embarrassing ‘Global Law Summit’ is open to all [Legal Cheek]

Chris Grayling’s global summit turns to sh*t [Legal Cheek]

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Jolyon Maugham of Middle Temple’s Devereux Chambers rebuts Judge John Hack’s diatribe against tradition, maintaining the silk road is a positive step towards greater diversity

First, a confession: the asshat in horsehair tucking into a bacon sandwich and occupying pride of photographic place in Legal Cheek’s attack yesterday on the QC system was me.

I tweeted the photo to my largely Labour leaning followers under the banner ‘Bacon Sandwich Caption Competition.’ You can see the entries here.

Having pinched my photo from Twitter, Judge John Hack then added to his misdeeds by failing to name me. I can only guess he sweetly (if erroneously) thought to spare my blushes.

A further editorial failing was the implicit suggestion that by eating a bacon sandwich in my horsehair I was somehow undermining the dignity of the status of Queen’s Counsel. Lawd save us all — and especially Legal Cheek’s advertising department — from the day it sees its editorial future in tacit tickings-off for those who don’t toe the line.

But what of the QC system itself?

It was rescued from contemplated abolition in the mid-noughties by the contention that allowing it to die would block a rare avenue of advancement for ethnic minority and other under-represented groups.

Whilst critics point to the preponderance of ageing white males — amongst whose sullied number I count myself — in the class of successful applicants, the real problem lies otherwise than in the appointments process.

Some 60% of women who applied in the latest round were successful, as were 42% of ethnic minority candidates, compared with 38% of men. The QC selection panel can only do so much to counteract the failure of the profession to retain women at the bar.

And it cannot control the over-representation of ethnic minority barristers in the economically-commoditised publicly-funded bar. There are powerful criticisms to be made of the diversity of the senior bar – but these cannot be laid at the door of the selection panel or its process.

And me? During my day of ritualised bowing and scraping at the QC ceremony earlier this week, I was struck by this thought: a living, dynamic legal system requires challenge. But you can’t run a legal system if any be-spotted Bryce with a double first regards himself as empowered to hector judges.

What the silk system does is require advocates to demonstrate judgement, intelligence and sensitivity. It then liberates them — because the imprimatur cannot be removed — to exercise those qualities to provide that challenge. To be the buffeting wind that encourages the law to grow stronger. I think that’s a good thing.

And the caption competition? As yet, no prize has been awarded — but there’s a nice bottle (or given your readership, two cheap ones) to the winner.

Follow @JolyonMaugham

PREVIOUSLY

Why it’s time to scrap the QC title [Legal Cheek]

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Hollywood idol appears to be generating a cult of his own in Legal London, as speculation builds over plot of latest Mission Impossible

The cult of Cruise continues around London’s Inns of Court.

The latest evidence of the sometimes-Hollywood star and full-time Scientology marketing man comes from junior barrister Mehvish Chaudhry.

The international family law barrister from Harcourt Chambers stumbled across a shady looking character in Middle Temple Lane, whom she immediately recognised, cajoled into a photo and then tweeted.

Demonstrating the bar’s renowned laser-sharp questioning skills, the seven-year-call lawyer demanded:

“Are you making a film about barristers?” — before adding adroitly, “You should.”

Cruise — the star of Missions Impossible 1 to 7,269 — is reported to be in town filming the latest installment of the franchise.

Speculation is rife around the inns that the film’s plot involves a diabolical bid by fiendish madman Chris “The Slasher” Grayling to take over the world, consigning all lawyers to forced labour camps.

But fuelled by the inspiring words of science fiction pulp novelist L Ron Hubbard, Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, sneaks up behind The Slasher as he issues a four-hour politburo-style diatribe from the stage of the Global Law Summit, bundles him into a van and transports him to a home for retired television producers.

And everyone lives happily ever after …

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Barristers and clerks left stunned as Tom Cruise walks into a London chambers [Legal Cheek]

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Panic room for barrister not Hollywood star, claims gossip mag, as rumours swirl that couple could also be looking to move into Chancery Lane pied-a-terre

Ever since a hitherto relatively unknown barrister got hitched to Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney, the London legal world has let its style be dictated by Amal Alamuddin. So lawyers should start eyeing up the costs of panic room installation.

Gossip magazine and website US Weekly reported yesterday that the Alamuddin-Clooney partnership is having security beefed up at their Berkshire pile. According to the mag’s source, the centre-piece of that enhancement will be a “fireproof, bombproof, and attack-resistant” panic room.

Clooney is reported to be adamant that the safe zone is not designed to protect him from adoring fans slightly miffed that he has tied the knot. Instead, it is for his lawyer wife.

“Amal has high-profile clients in controversial cases,” the US Weekly source relates, claiming the barrister must take special measures to protect her files — beyond, that is, leaving them at her Doughty Street chambers, or even with instructing solicitors.

“She needs to be secure,” intones the source portentously.

Meanwhile, in other Amal-George lifestyle news, the Inns of Court are reported to be abuzz with rumours that the glamour couple are to buy a pied-a-terre in the heart of legal London.

Word reaches Legal Cheek that estate agents have discreetly been instructed to scope the Chancery Lane environs. Which leads us to a suggestion that could please both the loved-up newly-weds and the solicitors’ profession.

Amal and George should either rent or buy the Georgian townhouse at the corner of Chancery Lane and Carey Street. Currently lavished on the Law Society President as that incumbent’s London bolt-hole, in these hard pressed financial times, the society could surely do with the cash.

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The criminal law specialist — better known as ITV’s version of Judge Judy — was one of three best men at heart-throb actor’s “secret” wedding

Benedict Cumberbatch married actress and theatre director Sophie Hunter in a private ceremony at St Peter & St Paul Church on the Isle of Wight on Saturday. Despite the wedding being announced in The Times — the couple were keen to keep details of their ceremony as private as possible.

However, one detail was leaked — the film star’s choice of best man. He opted for 2 Harecourt barrister and daytime reality TV judge, Robert Rinder.

Celeb Cumberbatch could have called on any a number of well-known stars to offer support on his big day — but he chose old Manchester Univeristy chum Rinder, along with two other unnamed friends.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, an insider said:

“There was speculation that he chose another actor, but he wanted genuine old friends in the role. They kept it pretty quiet. They were friends before either found fame.”

It seems only appropriate for Rinder to have played a part in the wedding — since it was Cumberbatch who officiated at Rinder’s own Ibiza marriage ceremony in 2013 to his boyfriend Seth Cumming.

Rinder is becoming a star in his own right. With his sassy put-downs and no-nonsense approach from the bench on the ITV show, Judge Rinder, he’s quickly building an army of fans. A second series hit screens earlier this year, with ITV increasing its output from 20 to 50 episodes.

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Exclusive interview: Judge Rinder on life as Britain’s newest reality TV star [Legal Cheek]

Heartthrob Cumberbatch in shock revelation: he wanted to be a barrister [Legal Cheek]

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The internet blazes with charge and counter-charge as criminal bar chief takes repeated hits for agreeing to speak at pilloried event

England’s barristers kicked off an internecine cyber war today as clamour rose for the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) chief to withdraw from next week’s controversial and jinxed Magna Carta celebrations.

CBA chairman Tony Cross QC of Manchester’s Lincoln House Chambers, is scheduled to speak at the Global Law Summit, which has been lambasted by legal aid lawyers for arguably focusing too heavily on commercial law.

Critics claim Cross’s high-profile attendance will lend the summit a veneer of rule-of-law credibility, when in reality the event is little more than an extended networking session for City lawyers and a photo-opportunity for Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.

Cross has defended his decision to take a high-profile speaking slot, arguing recently in The Times that he will use the platform to tell some home truths to ministers and the great and good about government cuts to legal aid.

But over the last few days, Cross and the Bar Council leadership generally have sustained a barrage of Twitter incoming fire.

Paul Darling QC from London’s Keating Chambers suggested barristers should picket the event. That view was widely supported — not least by 36 Bedford Row barrister Rebecca Herbert, who called on lawyers to “line the streets in protest” at the summit.

No excuses. The Bar should be lining the streets in OUTRAGE at the ridiculous Grayling farce called the Global Law Summit.

— Rebecca Herbert (@RebeccaHerber44) February 6, 2015

And today, John Cooper QC of 25 Bedford Row Chambers in the capital, took to The Times newspaper’s Law online to describe Cross’s scheduled appearance at the summit as having “created a barrage of criticism”.

According to Cooper, Cross’s decision to accept the speaking gig was made “without reference to the CBA executive committee”. Cooper said the move “will be challenged; although by all accounts, he [Cross] is not for turning”.

On Twitter, Cooper has repeatedly demanded to see the CBA committee minutes of the meeting where the decision was taken. The association’s hierarchy responded with a suggestion that Cooper’s attendance at its meetings was generally poor, and that he has not turned up since July 2012.

@John_Cooper_QC as im sure you know. If were truly interested in what went on, you cd have attended a single meeting during your yrs on exec

— The CBA (@TheCriminalBar) February 19, 2015

Cooper pointed out that he resigned from the association at that time in protest at what he described as “concerns over CBA democracy”, which explains his subsequent lack of attendance.

@TheCriminalBar And the reason for my resignation on that date were concerns over CBA democracy.

— John Cooper (@John_Cooper_QC) February 19, 2015

Meanwhile, the Bar Council has gone into Twitter over-drive in reaction to suggestions that it has partially underwritten the summit’s finances.

It was understood that to get the event off the ground, the MoJ, the Law Society, the City of London Law Society and the Bar Council had all stumped up seed cash.

But today the Bar’s representative body has adamantly denied — albeit invoking some curious grammar — that it had coughed up subsidy cash for the summit.

.@JudgeJohnHack @legalcheek We know our position. We support GLS. Haven't put any £ into it. Simples. We don't need MoJ to tell clarify that

— The Bar Council (@thebarcouncil) February 19, 2015

Getting to the bottom of the issue of who will take a hit if the summit doesn’t break even after sponsorship and delegate fees are totted up is like wading through treacle. The MoJ and summit organisers bounce the question between themselves with no sign of a clear answer.

For what it’s worth, an MoJ spokeswoman told Legal Cheek today that no organisation is underwriting the event; however, the “founding partners” — namely, the ministry, the Law Society, the Bar Council and the City of London Law Society — are “funding it”. According the woman from the ministry, “that is a very different thing”, although she declined to explain that difference.

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Criminal Bar Association makes awkward U-turn over Global Legal Summit [Legal Cheek]

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Exclusive Legal Cheek investigation: A mining and energy specialist solicitor, the London office of a top Canadian law firm, some posh “search” consultants and a leading legal directory may have been fooled by international fraudsters

A top City solicitor fell victim to a scam that resulted in the London office of a leading Canadian law firm wrongly promoting him as a queen’s counsel.

The inaccurate QC qualification was used to bag top-flight instructions and roles, including a consultancy with leading Toronto-based law firm, McCarthy Tétrault.

In a salutary warning that even experienced international lawyers can be conned, a Legal Cheek investigation has revealed a catalogue of personal gullibility, collective inefficiencies and official bumbling.

Coming on the heels of this week’s silk ceremony — in which 93 practising lawyers were made up to the rank in England and Wales — the story will potentially reheat the debate over the validity of what many see as little more than a vanity gong for the legal profession.

This tale of woe revolves around Australian-Irish lawyer Michael McCooe, who claims to have been duped by a shadowy organisation that dished out QC certificates for “administration” fees running to thousands of pounds.

The story dates back to 2006, when McCooe — a respected mining and energy specialist lawyer — was still in Sydney. He has told Legal Cheek that he received a letter from an outfit travelling under the exotic name of the League of International Attorneys (LIA).

The so-called league claimed to be able to acquire senior legal titles for lawyers who were entitled to enhanced ranks in various common law jurisdictions, but were simply too busy to go to the trouble of applying for the gongs themselves.

In McCooe’s case, the pitch suggested he was eligible for the rank of QC in Australia via a federal application, which would then be repatriated to an individual state. McCooe maintains he did not accept that rather grand assertion at face value and contacted the New South Wales Bar Association for clarification. An official, he claims, verified that in principle a third-party could make an application on a lawyer’s behalf.

Ultimately, McCooe says he opted for New South Wales as his favoured state of repatriation, stumped up US$2,500 (£1,600) via a credit card payment to the LIA, sending it with a form to business reply address in Vancouver in Canada.

“I thought it was worth a punt,” he commented ruefully to Legal Cheek.

A certificate eventually arrived through the post to McCooe’s Sydney address, but the lawyer claims that prior to 2011 he rarely used the QC rank in connection with his work.

However, when the lawyer joined the London office of McCarthy Tétrault in June 2011 — McCooe is also an English-qualified solicitor — the firm issued an excited press release claiming the recruitment of a silk to its ranks.

The Canadians described McCooe as being “among the most senior and experienced lawyers in Europe”, billing him as an expert in international competition and regulatory work, along with international litigation and mergers and acquisitions deals. He was held out as having specific expertise in the mining, resources and energy sectors.

Not long after his appointment, McCarthy Tétrault heavily promoted McCooe’s recently won instructions to advise the Colombian government on a border dispute with Nicaragua. Throughout its media communications, the firm referred to McCooe as a QC. Indeed, an entry on the firm’s lawyer profile section from the time describes McCooe as being “Queen’s Counsel to our London, UK, office’.

That profile claims McCooe was educated at the University of New South Wales, King’s College London and the University of Zurich. It goes on to say that McCooe was legally qualified in England and Wales, New South Wales, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and France.

The firm also repeatedly referred to McCooe as a QC in several legal profession directory entries, including Chambers & Partners Global.

That development could reignite debate simmering around the multi-million pound directories market. All directories have to greater and lesser degrees been criticised in the past for allegedly running out-of-date or in some cases inaccurate information in the reams of law firm and chambers entries published each year.

Further details of McCooe’s CV come from documents seen by Legal Cheek from City-based legal profession headhunting business Marsden Group. It too promoted McCooe as a QC when the lawyer was bidding to jump from McCarthy Tétrault and was scouting round for potential law firms.

In that pitch, McCooe makes heavy play of having “worked very closely” with the crème de la crème of City law firms. Among those he cites are Slaughter and May, Linklaters, as well as the London and Australia offices of Herbert Smith Freehills, Clearly Gottlieb in Washington, and several leading far east practices.

But it all started to turn sour for McCooe and McCarthy Tétrault in October 2013. One of the firm’s London-based senior partners informed McCooe that the management had received allegations that his QC rank was bogus.

McCooe searched for his LIA certificate, but realised it had been left in Australia. He attempted to contact the league, but all roads led to a series of dead-ends.

Eventually McCooe tracked the league down to a call centre in India. Several times he requested a duplicate certificate and eventually a supposed copy was dispatched to McCarthy Tétrault’s head office in Toronto.

Officials there sent it to the NSWBA for verification. Initially the the bar association confirmed its validity, but subsequently the top official at the NSWBA has confirmed that was a mistake and the certificate was a doctored version of one of its online forms.

Philip Selth, the association’s executive director, told Legal Cheek that the original confirmation was wrong:

“[The] response in 2013 appears to have been sent in error; the details on the attachment are not correct.”

Selth added that the attachment sent to the association from the law firm “was not created by us and did not come from the NSW Bar Association, although it appears to attempt to replicate how the find-a-barrister section of our website used to look. The attachment contains additional fields that were never present on our website.”

In fact, Selth goes on to say the document concerned “is not a statement of status — that is an entirely different document”.

Seth also confirmed to Legal Cheek that McCooe had never been granted either the status of QC or senior counsel in New South Wales.

It therefore appears as though the League of International Attorneys forged the document. That organisation now seems to have disappeared without trace — McCooe told Legal Cheek that his recent attempts to contact the organisation have failed, with all past telephone numbers now dead.

Indeed, Legal Cheek’s own efforts to track down the organisation have produced no evidence of any current public face.

McCooe has subsequently left McCarthy Tétrault. A spokeswoman described the firm as “obviously disappointed” with the saga. She would not comment on why it waited more than two years before checking McCooe’s status with the NSW Bar Association, pointing out only that:

“Mr McCooe was fully qualified to operate in the capacity in which he was employed by us. We are not in position to comment further”.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Marsden, the founder of Marsden Legal Search & Recruitment declined to comment on the headhunters’ due diligence processes in confirming the stated credentials and qualifications of lawyers it attempts to place. Marsden commented:

“The work we do for law firms and individuals is of an extremely confidential nature and it would be highly inappropriate to discuss any aspect of our business with you.”

Over at legal directory monolith Chambers & Partners, managing director Mark Wyatt was adamant that its global directory “does not rank or recommend Mr McCooe in any form”. He added:

“The only mention of Mr McCooe in any Chambers product is within a marketing communication supplied to us referencing a deal he was involved in”.

Wyatt went on to say that as of yesterday, Chambers had removed that reference “pending the results of an ongoing investigation by the team in consultation with McCarthy Tétrault”.

On the sensitive issue of how clearly directories should distinguish law firm marketing puff from editorial research, Wyatt said:

“We never blend our independent commentary with marketing material, there is always a separation in physical location and style, both web and print.”

As for the English regulators, they have little to say on the subject of a lawyer and a law firm illegitimately holding out a QC qualification, albeit unwittingly. A spokesman for the Bar Standards Board (BSB) told Legal Cheek:

“There is no specific offence of calling oneself a QC when one is not entitled to do so, unlike calling oneself a barrister or solicitor when not entitled to do so.

“If we have information which suggests someone may be passing themselves off as a barrister when they are not entitled to do so we will normally pass it to the police, unless there is good reason to think they are already aware.”

The spokesman went on to say that as McCooe is an English-qualified solicitor “matters regarding his conduct are for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to deal with”.

Over to the SRA, then. Its code of conduct stipulates that any publicity solicitors produce about themselves “is accurate and not misleading, and is not likely to diminish the trust the public places in you and in the provision of legal services”.

Therefore, says a spokesman:

“If Mr McCooe has been holding himself out as having qualifications that he does not, then that could constitute a breach of the code. Anyone pretending to be a solicitor would be committing a criminal act under the Solicitors Act 1974 and the SRA could prosecute.”

That seems fairly straightforward, but the spokesman qualified by saying:

“But claiming to be an Australian QC is not an area where we could get involved. It would be for other agencies to declare whether or not this was illegal.”

As for McCooe himself, he claims to have been nothing more than a naïve and gullible victim of an elaborate fraud. On realising in early 2014 that the League of International Attorneys had about as much of a foot in reality as the League of Gentlemen, McCooe resigned from McCarthy Tétrault and immediately attempted to withdraw all published references to the bogus QC title.

“I’m devastated by this,” McCooe told Legal Cheek. “I’ve called back all QC documents and have fallen on my sword at the firm. I’ve not worked since as a lawyer and will not again.”

The post The fake QC scam, the City law firm and the high-flying but gullible solicitor appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Advice for rough diamonds from Norton Rose Fulbright, Hardwicke and BPP Law School

One question — or variant of — kept coming up during our Facebook careers Q&A on Wednesday: how can you become a lawyer if you don’t quite fit the profile of the consistent high-achiever beloved of law firms and chambers?

We’ve trawled the discussion thread — which is worth reading in full — for the best nuggets of advice for students in this category and highlighted them below.

1. Hustle

If you don’t have top grades, you can’t afford to sit back and let a career as a lawyer come to you. BPP Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) lecturer and careers programme leader Wenying Li recommends “extensive networking” and “calling up a few of the firms you are most interested in with a five-minute pitch aimed at getting them to consider your application”. She continues:

“This has worked for my students before. But I say ‘a few’ because this takes time and energy and the results could be discouraging. In your pitch, you will have to make a concise case for what else is strong about your CV / background that ‘overrides’ your weak A-Level grades.”

2. Emphasise your potential to be consistent

In making said pitch, consider how much law firms — particularly of the large variety — value consistency.

“We look for consistency across all your modules,” explains Norton Rose Fulbright trainee recruitment advisor Jillian Dent. “If there are one or two slip-ups along the way, that won’t be detrimental to your application. But if you consistently go up and down, that would be a cause of concern.”

Accordingly, if your grades fluctuate sharply, you need to compensate by showing that you are consistent in other areas, and present a plausible case about how you are likely to become more consistent in future.

3. If you have bad A-levels, find somewhere that doesn’t care about A-Levels

Some firms and chambers will automatically junk applicants who fail to meet minimum A-level requirements. Others won’t. The same applies for degree results. You need to find the firms/chambers that will look on your CV favourably.

Hardwicke employment law barrister Paul Sterlitz explains:

“As someone who has sifted a LOT of pupillage applications over the years I can say that for my part in the marking process, A-levels are no more than a base line indicator. If someone has an alternative qualification at that level, or the results at A-level were not that impressive, for me that does not count as a ‘negative’.

“Perhaps if I can put it this way; I still invited someone for interview who got three Ds at A Level and a first in their law degree. As I quickly learned from that impressive candidate, A-levels were wholly unimportant when viewed in the round.”

4. Pay close attention to the graduate recruitment cycle

While getting a position with smaller firms tends to be more ad hoc, the securing of a training contract at a big international law firm is a formal process that requires candidates to do certain things at key dates during the year.

That means getting to grips with the graduate recruitment cycle when it begins in autumn and immediately making applications to attend law firm open days.

It is at this point that the barriers to entry are lowest, allowing students to make themselves known to firms they wish to join. This will boost their chances when it comes to applying for vac schemes in December and January. As Norton Rose Fulbright’s Dent explains:

“Open days and insight days held at various law firms are also a good way to show your interest in the legal sector and obtain knowledge about a firm’s people, culture and strategy.”

5. Apply early

Most students leave it to the last minute to put in vacation scheme and training contract applications. Privately law firm graduate recruiters admit that this a) drives them crazy as it leads to a surge in work, and b) reduces students’ chances as some of the places have already been taken by deadline day. Gain an easy advantage by applying early.

“We always encourage an early application as we, like several other firms, look at applications on a rolling basis,” says Norton Rose Fulbright’s Dent. “Hundreds of students apply in the hours leading up to the deadline. For obvious reasons, this is something we actively discourage.”

6. Do clever things to help yourself stand out

Students often complain that they find it difficult to get onto vacation schemes or mini-pupillages without having already completed legal work experience.

To get that first bit of experience, they need to volunteer for pro bono schemes run by universities and law schools, suggests BPP’s Li.

“You can get over the chicken-and-egg problem (how do I get law experience without any law experience on my CV?) by finding pro bono work yourself. Why not approach the lawyer/legal department of charities and religious organisations and ask for some legal shadowing experience,” she says.

Hardwicke’s Strelitz agrees, reminding students that pro bono work can reach appellate level — which is obviously CV gold. He also advises students to give marshalling a go:

“I personally had never heard of marshalling until I was in my first year at university,” he says. “Once I was I wrote to a local circuit judge, told him who I was and what I wanted to do and then asked if I could marshall him for 2-3 days. He rang me the next day(!) and said that he would be delighted as it was such a polite letter and he was always so keen to help out students.”

The post 6 ways candidates who don’t fit the mould can boost their chances of landing a training contract or pupillage appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Tony Cross QC hits back at critics who say he should boycott Chris Grayling’s law schmooze-fest

The head of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has pledged to provide a voice for legal aid lawyers at the much-maligned Global Law Summit, which opened yesterday evening at the Royal Courts of Justice amid heavy security.

Tony Cross QC has been criticised by some criminal practitioners for speaking at justice secretary Chris Grayling’s law schmooze-fest, with fellow CBA member John Cooper QC particularly vocal, slamming Cross in The Times and in the Legal Cheek comments section.

The pressure on the CBA boss has been intensified by the decision of Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti to pull out of the event.

But yesterday Cross hit back, telling The Independent how he will use his platform for good.

“I’m going to talk about how successive governments have treated public law with contempt, certainly over the last 20 years,” he said, adding:

“I will look to compare and contrast this wonderful idea of Magna Carta and where we are now: how morale is at an all-time low, how barristers and solicitors feel undervalued. The last few governments have treated the legal aid system as a second-class service, when in fact it should be treated as a first-class service that society demands, from probation to the delivery of services in magistrates’ and crown courts.”

Certainly, it will be interesting to observe how Cross manages to get his voice heard at an event that is open only to members of the press who are approved by the summit’s organisers.

Guests arriving for the Welcome Reception @ Royal Courts of Justice #GLS2015 pic.twitter.com/FXfHoV5Bof

— Global Law Summit (@globallawsummit) February 22, 2015

Yesterday evening when Legal Cheek tried to gain access to the opener of the three-day event at the Royal Courts of Justice we were refused entry as ID-badge wielding delegates passed through tight, airport-style security barriers.

But we’ll be doing our best to report Cross’ summit speech — which is rumoured to include a demand that no non-lawyer is ever again appointed as Lord Chancellor — when it is given over the next couple of days.

The most newsworthy action may, however, be taking place outside the summit, which today moves to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster. Outside actress Maxine Peake (who plays Martha Costello QC in BBC drama Silk) will join protestors reading from Magna Carta, before Not The Global Law Summit takes place this evening in Islington, north London.

PREVIOUSLY

Bar in cyber war with itself over bigwig support for Global Law Summit [Legal Cheek]

Criminal Bar Association makes awkward U-turn over Global Legal Summit [Legal Cheek]

The post Criminal bar chief vows to speak up for legal aid as Global Law Summit opens amid heavy security appeared first on Legal Cheek.

But not an Ede & Ravenscroft in sight

With Tom Cruise currently filming Mission Impossible 5 in the Temple and Amal and George Clooney hunting for a pied-à-terre on Chancery Lane, legal London is a glamorous place to be these days.

So it was with an almost world weary sigh that Middle Temple opened its doors to London Fashion Week on Friday night.

As the fashionistas poured in, the great hall — which hosted the first recorded performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in 1602 and, more recently, an episode of MasterChef — came to resemble a fancy dress version of an Inns of Court qualifying session.

But would there be any lawyer-themed designs? The Saul Goodman, perhaps? Or, at the very least, a nod to local designer Ede & Ravenscroft?

Sadly not, although we’d like to think the surroundings played a part in lowering inhibitions to the showcasing of wacky headgear.

The post London Fashion Week hits Middle Temple appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Bar regulator pledges to “build flexibility” into Bar Professional Training Course in bid to reduce cost

The Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) could be split up into lots of little courses that would be taught online in a bid to cut the huge cost of barrister training.

Under pressure to update a course that comes in for consistent criticism from students — not least because of its £18,000 price tag — the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has announced plans to review the BPTC which state that it “need not be delivered in one, integrated course”.

In a pamphlet published on its website, the BSB outlines its fear that the BPTC is becoming a course for rich dilettantes, many of whom fail to obtain one of the approximately 450 pupillages available each year. Despite the lack of barrister jobs available, 1,500 candidates enrolled on the BPTC in 2014.

“We are concerned by evidence of increasing costs throughout Bar training. It is worrying because it has a significant influence on the range of people who might consider a career at the Bar,” said the body.

Identifying a “need to focus on what a barrister needs to be able to do at the point when they are authorised” rather than pointless hoop-jumping, the BSB goes on to pledge to use technology to bring down the cost of the BPTC.

“We must allow training providers to take advantage of innovations in training,” the regulator continues, “for instance in the way that information is shared with the student. Modern online delivery techniques (such as webinars and e-learning) might prove valuable … we must build flexibility into each of our training requirements.”

Elsewhere in the pamphlet the BSB outlines plans to make pupillage more flexible, with chambers to be given a wider remit to determine what pupils do and greater flexibility to send them on secondments. Details are sketchy, but the gist of the idea is conveyed in the BSB’s statement that it is not convinced that there is “only one way” to organise pupillages. Of the proposal, BSB education and training chief Simon Thornton-Wood BSB, said:

“At a time of great change across the profession who better to design and deliver the pupillage experience to aspiring barristers than professionals themselves? And if this greater flexibility means that there can be more pupillages on offer that is also a good move.”

There will be a consultation on changes to the BPTC this summer with a view to introducing the reforms from September 2017.

The post The BPTC could be chopped up into lots of little courses appeared first on Legal Cheek.

As protests rage in Westminster, Tony Cross QC forecasts the end of the legal profession as we know it

The head of the criminal bar has used his platform at today’s Global Law Summit to outline his dystopian vision of the future of the legal profession, featuring a bar that will “wither on the vine and die out” and the replacement of many solicitors with paralegals.

Tony Cross QC’s words came on a surreal day at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster, where international delegates including the US attorney general Eric Holder and Oscar nominated actress Carey Mulligan (both pictured below left with a rather awkward-looking Chris Grayling) mingled inside the building as noisy protests took place outside. The protesters were led by, amongst others, Martha Costello QC actress Maxine Peake (pictured below right).

While Cross, who has been heavily criticised for his decision to speak at the event, avoided directly criticising justice secretary Grayling in his speech, he did slam successive governments’ attitude towards the rule of law, before taking the opportunity to describe how the Tories’ reforms could play out in practice.

“The trusted local High Street firm of solicitors is likely to become an historical curiosity than a feature of our land. In their place will become the conglomerate, the franchised or branded ‘services company’,” he predicted.

At this point, Cross (pictured below) added, “the competition will have been removed and the large company will (once again) be in a position to hold the Government to ransom”.

He continued:

“Meanwhile in place of qualified solicitors, one will receive advice from less qualified paralegals … Unable to receive trusted advice, people risk contesting trials where once they might have pleaded guilty. Even worse, unable to make contracts pay should too many trials go ahead, there is a risk that perverse incentives may come into play and people will be advised to plead guilty, not because they are, but because it becomes profitable were they to do so.”

The worst fate, though, in Cross’s bleak vision, was reserved for the criminal bar. He went on:

“It would be wrong and misguided to believe that these reforms which appear to impact only on solicitors, appalling enough as that would be, would not also affect the bar. With more advocacy work inevitably being taken in-house by these new entities, the junior bar will wither on the vine and die out. With no junior bar, there will be no senior bar and should this come to pass, then from where will come our next generation of judges in the family, county and crown courts?”

Cross also highlighted how dysfunctional the current situation has become, charting how many young legal aid barristers are quitting the profession or avoiding it all together.

“Every day, members of the junior bar turn up to do hearings unpaid,” he explained. “They have continued to do so because they are seasoned professionals who care deeply. But they have reached the end of their tether. Droves of the young are leaving and the professions are being hollowed out as increasingly people do not believe there is a future in publicly funded work. And why should society expect talented students laden with debt to take a career path that promises so little?”

Meanwhile, in an earlier speech Grayling sought to defend his position by arguing that “economic reality” can force “profoundly unwelcome” changes to the legal system.

“It is clear to me looking back at history that no change is seldom an option,” he reflected.

The post The bar ‘will die out’ and solicitors be replaced by paralegals, predicts top criminal barrister at Global Law Summit appeared first on Legal Cheek.

As lawyers wake up to the mobile photo-sharing network, we bring you the best legally-themed accounts

1. UrbanLawyers

Events for law students and musings on human rights, by Doughty Street barrister Tunde Okewale.

#Repost @thesimpsonsig Little #video to start the day, have a productive #Monday everybody! Check out our next #event! #HumanRights! Link in bio! #lawyers #lovelawyers #UrbanLawyers #thesimpsons

A video posted by @urbanlawyers on Feb 16, 2015 at 12:41am PST

2. MissLaurenRiley

An inside peak into the life of St Albans family law solicitor Lauren Riley (who was on The Apprentice) — she seems to spend lots of time at the gym.

Gym times video not amazing form as it was the end of a long hard session but a snapshot of my workout #fitness #workout #gym

A video posted by Lauren Riley (@misslaurenriley) on Jan 31, 2015 at 4:51am PST

3. YourBarristerBoyfriend

Documenting the lives of unsuspecting “barrister hotties”.

9 Gough sq out and about

A photo posted by The Barrister Hottie Experts (@yourbarristerboyfriend) on Dec 23, 2014 at 7:02am PST

4. DavidRowntree

Out and about with Kingsley Napley solicitor Dave Rowntree and his old pals from Blur.

Coxon's back in my Instagram stream! @grahamcoxon

A photo posted by David Rowntree (@davidrowntree) on Feb 20, 2015 at 1:04pm PST

5. Lawstudent_insomniac

Charting the pain of life as a wannabe lawyer.

A little end of the week motivation to keep going. #lawschoollife #lawstudent #lawschoolprobs #letthemsleep #lawschoolgrind #lawschool #workhard #lawlife #lifeasa3L #keepgoing #motivation #almostalawyer #lawstudentinsomniac #3Lproblems

A photo posted by lawstudent_insomniac (@lawstudent_insomniac) on Feb 5, 2015 at 8:53pm PST

6. Aspiring Solicitors

Insights into, amongst other things, law firm biscuits — from Chris White, founder of diversity and networking organisation Aspiring Solicitors.

More treats at Olswang!

A photo posted by Increasing Diversity In Law (@aspiringsolicitors) on Feb 17, 2015 at 2:32am PST

7. KevinPoulter

Bircham Dyson Bell solicitor Kevin Poulter keeps followers up-to-date with his penchant for celebrity spotting.

Especially for new followers from @LegalCheek

A photo posted by Kevin Poulter (@kevinpoulter) on Feb 24, 2015 at 2:50am PST

8. DWF_Graduate_Recruitment

One of the more prolific — and honest — of the growing number of corporate law firm Instagram accounts.

Photocopying #myfavourite #dayinthelifeofatrainee

A photo posted by @dwf_graduate_recruitment on Dec 3, 2014 at 1:59am PST

9. BristolUniLaw

One of the most active UK law faculty Instagram accounts, featuring regularly dispatches from the West Country.

Congratulations to Ben, and all of our graduates #lawschool

A photo posted by Uni of Bristol Law School (@bristolunilaw) on Feb 11, 2015 at 8:58am PST

10. TheLegalDiaries

A Keele Uni second year charts the ups and downs of her law degree.

It has been a crazy day. Thankyou to @legalcheek for sharing this page! (Although, without asking me first…but it's cool. We cleared that up earlier!) However, it has raised my attention to the importance of ensuring that your personal information is secure online. Especially in light of details that I had left available on this account. This page will remain anonymous from now on. At present with 2 sarcastic and legally motivated admins! Also, in a slightly happier note (but still so so relevant!) – This gives you a good chance to check out the new Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014. It was an exciting summer and the law on the sanctity of personal information has just gotten better!! (Thanks for reading) -S #lawfeels #DRIP2014 #dataretention #Lawstudent #lovelaw #anonymous #law #lawschool #hardworking #workaholic #sorrynotsorry

A photo posted by @thelegaldiaries on Feb 24, 2015 at 10:29am PST

11. LegalCheek

And last but not least … all the latest news from the legal profession frontline.

Tom Cruise had a look round One Crown Office Row Chambers today. #TomCruise

A photo posted by Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) on Feb 13, 2015 at 9:57am PST

PREVIOUSLY

9 Instagram photos that law firms wouldn’t use in their graduate recruitment brochures [Legal Cheek]

The post 11 law-related Instagram accounts that are worth a follow appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Stars including Stewart Lee, Stephen K Amos and Sara Pascoe put on gig in protest against the cuts

A host of leading comedians turned out last night at an event dubbed Not the Global Law Summit organised in protest at the government’s Global Law Summit taking place down the road in Westminster.

Performing in the front of a model of justice secretary Chris Grayling set in Magna Carta-branded stocks, the comedians — who included Stephen K Amos, Angela Barnes, Alistair Barrie, Kevin Eldon, Stewart Lee (pictured above), Sara Pascoe, Nick Revell and Joe Wells — took turns at having a pop at the justice secretary and his government’s regime of cuts.

Some of those on stage at the event at Islington’s Union Chapel had a legal connection, with Amos having studied law at Westminster University and the father of up-and-coming satirist Wells working as a probation officer.

But most were just appalled at the government’s behaviour to target the legal aid sector while turning a blind eye to tax avoidance by corporations and the super rich — and gave their time last night for free to a full-house.

Packed house at #notthegloballawsummit #standupforlegalaid pic.twitter.com/0VFkT7E7nd

— Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) February 23, 2015

Also speaking was Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, who had made a point of returning her invite to the actual Global Law Summit. She expressed her distaste with the event taking place at a time of cuts to legal aid, while highlighting the news yesterday of the “cash for access” scandal as a reason why those in power should be subject to constant challenge (see the videoclip below).

Shami Chakrabarti at #notthegloballawsummit

A video posted by Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) on Feb 23, 2015 at 1:19pm PST

There is more information about the campaign to protect legal aid at Justice Alliance.

Previously

The bar ‘will die out’ and solicitors be replaced by paralegals, predicts top criminal barrister at Global Law Summit [Legal Cheek]

The post Comedians stand up for legal aid at Not The Global Law Summit appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Tory Geoffrey Cox QC heads the list with his reported annual haul of more than £800k from the bar, but former Solicitor General would also be in trouble

Top barristers would be some of the hardest hit MPs if Labour leader Ed Miliband becomes prime minister and gets his way by slapping a £10,000 cap on additional earnings for lower house parliamentarians.

Last night, the government defeated a Labour motion for a ban on MPs holding paid directorships or consultancies. But commentators anticipate that Labour’s ultimate plan would be to impose a cap on MPs’ outside earnings.

If that is the case, it is understood that four big names would immediately be in the line of fire if outside earnings were limited to 10% to 15% of MP salaries.

Miliband’s call comes in the wake of the latest cash-for-access scandal, in which the Daily Telegraphy newspaper stung former foreign secretaries Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw for allegedly attempting to line up lucrative consultancies while still sitting in the house.

Both politicians are lawyers — Rifkind qualified as a Scottish advocate in 1970 and practised for about four years; Straw was called to the bar in England and practised as a criminal hack between 1972-74. Both were made political silks.

Their four barrister MP colleagues, who will currently not be best disposed towards either Rifkind or Straw for drawing attention to outside earnings, are all Tories.

Geoffrey Cox QC — a white-collar crime and courts martial specialist, who founded Thomas More Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields — clearly leads the pack. He is reported to have hauled in more than £820,000 from the bar last year.

Former Solicitor General and current media law specialist Sir Edward Garnier QC — from One Brick Court in the Temple — is thought to trouser more than £275,000 a year.

Stephen Phillips QC — an insurance and reinsurance expert at the Temple’s 7KBW — is reported to pull down nearly £260,000.

While Sir Tony Baldry — a commercial disputes hack and head of chambers at One Essex Court in The Temple — takes home a more modest £190k from the bar, but he is also understood to hold several executive positions.

All four feature in the list of top-10 outside earners in the House of Commons. Surprisingly, Cox’s bucket-load only places him second in the overall list, behind former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, who manages to take just a few thousand shy of a smooth million every year back to his Fife home.

Garnier clocks in at fifth place on the money bags league table, Phillips follows right behind in sixth, while Baldry comes in at eighth position, right behind the Dr Spock of the Commons, John Redwood.

The four most loaded barrister MPs are clearly doing well for themselves, but just how well relative to their peers is difficult to say. Arriving at an average earnings figure at the bar is a slippery business, with the Bar Council demurring on the subject in its statistical report on the profession.

As Chambers Student directory points out:

“Since the bar is a gentlemanly, old-school sort of place at times — your typical barrister would probably consider it a little vulgar to reveal how much wedge he’s packing …This is probably the reason the Bar Council seems extraordinarily reluctant to publish anything about barristers’ earnings, deeming it too sensitive a topic to comment on.”

Nonetheless, Chambers Student does its bit to fill the gap — at least as far as the early years of call are concerned. Commercial barristers in their second year of call are likely to earn between £70,000 and £200,000 annually.

But at the other end of the spectrum, public law and family specialists of the same vintage will be on between £40,000 and £90,000.

Which chambers pay their pupils most wedge? Check out the Legal Cheek Chambers Most List.

The post Four money-bags barristers in crosshairs if Miliband’s MP earnings cap wins day appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Leading reality telly babe desperate for legal work experience, suggest internet gossipmongers, while also claiming there’s trouble in Amal-George paradise

Media reports are suggesting that Hollywood It Girl Kim Kardashian is badgering Amal Clooney for a spot of work experience at renowned London human rights set Doughty Street Chambers.

Website Radar Online reports that the daughter of one of OJ Simpson’s legal defence team, Robert Kardashian, is keen to follow, at least partially, in her father’s footsteps.

And she’s not letting little details — such as not possessing a university degree — stand in her way.

Radar says Kim is hell bent on assisting attempts to force the Turkish government to rescind its official denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915 — and she reckons Amal Clooney is just the person to give her a boost.

But, says Radar, Amal has been “dodging” repeated messages at chambers from the 34-year-old reality television diva.

What Radar neglects to report is that Doughty Street has temporarily put its mini-pupillage programme on hold, with the set’s website stating:

“Chambers is in the process of reviewing our mini pupillage programme, including its format and frequency. Whilst this process is undertaken, we are not advertising the next scheme.”

Therefore, it could be that Amal is simply respecting chambers protocol and quite properly leaving Kim to await the outcome of the mini-pupillage review alongside every other wannabe barrister interested in work experience at the chambers.

When contacted by Legal Cheek this morning, a spokesman for the set — which is headed by Aussie silk Geoffrey Robertson QC (who is of course husband to chick-lit author Kathy Lette), as well as being home to former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC and human rights firebrand Helena Kennedy QC — declined to comment on whether Kardashian had been burning up the transatlantic phone lines.

In any case, Amal may have other concerns on her plate …

It seems a bit early for the internet gossip machine to churn out suggestions that her marriage to Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney is headed for the divorce courts, but several antipodean sites have been stoking the flames, suggesting that after only five months the pair is already feeling the strain of vastly different professional lives and commitments.

According to New Zealand online gossip merchants Stuff, various sources suggest that George is reluctant to drop his cherished Hollywood lifestyle, which doesn’t mix that well with Amal’s desire to continue her high-octane London legal practice.

Despite recent reports that the two have bolstered security at their Berkshire pile with the installation of a panic room, and suggestions they were hunting for a London pied-a-terre, the latest rumours insist that George is refusing to move to Blighty.

If so, that will make their commitment not to spend more than a fortnight apart all the more difficult, shout the reports.

Amal’s 37th birthday celebrations at the beginning of this month have also fallen under the spotlight. Stuff alleges that George had “planned a special dinner with Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber, but Amal didn’t want to spend any time with her husband’s Hollywood friends”.

Instead, on the day itself, George allegedly buggered off to work (presumably taking a packed lunch with him, in the way that Hollywood stars do), “which left Amal hurt and angry”.

Angry perhaps, but surely it’s far too early to reach for Raymond “The Rotweiller” Tooth‘s mobile phone number …

Previously

Don’t panic, George tells Amal as couple beefs up domestic security [Legal Cheek]

Why Amal Clooney is making a mistake by assuming her actor husband’s surname [Legal Cheek]

The post Amal Clooney said to be ‘dodging’ Kim Kardashian’s Doughty Street mini-pupillage plea appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Press inquiry impresario to judge top student competition — once he’s worked out what “not proven” means — with TV barrister also to appear as Bar Mock Trial final goes north of border

Lord Leveson — the Court of Appeal judge who brought a grateful nation hours of entertaining testimony from fading British film celebrities — is going to have to go back to law school.

Sir Brian — as his chums know the current president of the Queen’s Bench Division — is scheduled to judge the grand final of this year’s Bar National Mock Trial competition, which will take place on 28 March at the Edinburgh Court of Session after previous finals in Cardiff and London.

The judge-to-the-stars will be joined by 2 Hare Court barrister Robert Rinder, who is better known as daytime TV’s Judge Rinder. The celeb white collar crime specialist, who was best man at Benedict Cumberbatch’s recent wedding, will be awarding the prizes at the event, which is run by the Citizenship Foundation.

While the Scots narrowly decided they didn’t fancy having an independent country in last September’s referendum, they still insist on maintaining their own legal system.

Having opted for a Scottish final, the competition’s organisers have decided to do the polite thing and run proceedings in the law of the host city. That means Sir Brian has been brushing up his Scots law and procedure knowledge.

Indeed, the students, too, will have to familiarise themselves with the law and procedure equivalents to haggis and tartan (please note our noble restraint in not making a fried Mars Bar/pizza slice/anything else that’s vaguely edible reference).

Sir Brian is arguably best known across the UK and abroad for his year-long inquiry into press ethics, which brought stars of stage and screen such as Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan into the witness box and turned Robert Jay QC, lead counsel to the inquiry, into a matinee idol.

Joining Lord Justice Leveson on the mock trial judging panel are, among others, fellow Court of Appeal judge, Lord Justice Davis and Scotland Court of Session judge, Lady Rae.

Follow @MockTrials

PREVIOUSLY

Lawyers at Bar National Mock Trial Competition urge students to look beyond criminal bar [Legal Cheek]

Improving social mobility at the bar? Students at the Old Bailey is a start [The Guardian]

The post Lord Justice Leveson to brush up on Scots law as he heads north with Judge Rinder appeared first on Legal Cheek.

Conservative awkward squad member Peter Bone quickly rejects invitation to Dinah Rose’s human rights event

Peter Bone is clearly a busy man.

In a recent episode of BBC Two’s Inside the Commons — a programme affording viewers a behind-the-curtain peek into parliamentary life — Bone is seen, somewhat bluntly, rejecting an invitation to a human rights event hosted by top QC Dinah Rose of the Temple’s Blackstone Chambers (see video below).

Bone — the MP for the Northamptonshire seat of Wellingborough, who backs UK withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights — is seen sitting at his parliamentary desk while his researcher reads a list of invitations.

The MP doesn’t miss a beat when he hears that his presence is requested at a soiree entitled “What’s the Point of the Human Rights Act? With Dinah Rose QC”. He barks a short, sharp “no”, leaving the researcher in no doubt that pretty much anything to do with that piece of legislation and that silk is not, well, his cup of Rosie Lee.

A video posted by Legal Cheek (@legalcheek) on Feb 27, 2015 at 1:31am PST

That harsh rejection — one can almost taste the disdain — was issued despite Rose being The Lawyer magazine’s barrister of the year in 2009 and making The Times newspaper’s prestigious list of the country’s top 100 lawyers in 2012.

Rose — who was called to the Bar in 1989 and awarded silk in 2006 — isn’t a stranger to politics herself. Until 2013, she was a member of the Liberal Democrats but bailed out in protest at party leader Nick Clegg’s support for the coalition government’s justice and security bill.

Most recently, Rose has been on her hind legs in the High Court in London, representing the Law Society in a judicial review challenge to Ministry of Justice plans to create a two-tier contract system for criminal legal aid.

Indeed, Bone might be quite pleased with the fact that Rose took a bit of a beating in that matter, with the court dismissing Chancery Lane’s case (chalk up one to Justice Secretary Chris Grayling).

However, Rose’s refreshers are not in danger, as leave to appeal was granted this morning.

The post Tory MP snubs QC darling of civil liberties bar in BBC documentary appeared first on Legal Cheek.