Despite a rail strike, turnout at last Saturday’s Bar Conference plenary event was impressive. Barristers could also watch remotely as Mark Fenhalls KC, in his opening speech, told the Bar Standards Board to, in turn, tell the Legal Services Board to ‘butt out’. It may be the first time that expression has been heard in the Grand Connaught Rooms.
The government was represented by attorney general Victoria Prentis KC MP, called to the bar in 1995, and the first member of the employed bar to be appointed the government’s chief law officer.
Prentis assured the conference that her first duty is to uphold the rule of law: ‘The rule of law is the foundation on which we build trust in all of our institutions – a principle I will always defend.’ However, anyone hoping for juicy insider gossip was left sorely disappointed – thanks to the law officers’ convention, the content of any advice she gives can never be disclosed. However, she assured the conference she would provide her advice ‘first as a lawyer, second as a politician’.
Unlike her colleague Dominic Raab, who is unhappy about the £54m settlement agreed by his predecessor to end the criminal bar strike, Prentis was ‘delighted’ that a settlement had been reached. ‘There is significant work to be done on the Covid backlog,’ she continued – missing the opportunity to point out that members attending the conference in person were sitting two floors below a Nightingale court.
Another bonus for turning up in person was the chance to collect exhibition-stand goodies. Obiter was delighted to find a replacement for Mr Justice Squeezy, originally picked up at the bar’s 2011 conference and tragically lost in the great Law Society fire of 2020. Our other casualty was a Quality Solicitors-branded tin of beans. Barbecue beans now, sadly.
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