Hamer, a heavyweight companion

When I came to the bar in the late 1970s, no solicitor or barrister could make a living out of professional conduct work alone. Today, more than 40 years later, a significant number of practitioners do so successfully, and have their own professional body, the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers. During those four decades, Codes of Conduct have expanded in number and importance. Disciplinary tribunals have become ever more like courts. More controversially, regulators have sought to impose ever higher standards of professional conduct, in recent years even intruding into the private lives of those they regulate.

One of the results of this has been an ever-expanding body of case law. Kenneth Hamer has, heroically, managed to assemble into one volume the most important decisions in a disparate field. The reader of this casebook will find cases involving doctors and other medical professionals, teachers, lawyers, financiers, sportsmen, social workers and others.

The first edition was published in 2013 and was an immediate success – for practitioners like me, whose skills in searching the internet are decidedly second rate, the casebook became an essential resource. In the 10 years since, the book has improved, with a user-friendly arrangement of chapters, and marginal notes which tell the reader whether the case is likely to be of interest in researching a particular point.

The third edition was published in 2019, and so, bearing in mind the never-ending torrent of judicial decisions, this fourth edition is perhaps a little overdue. It lives up to the standard of its predecessors. Hamer has assembled 350 new cases, and the book now contains commentary upon roughly 2,500 decisions in its 91 chapters. Several of those chapters are new. The last chapter contains only cases decided in 2023, ensuring that the book is completely up to date.

It is impossible to exaggerate the usefulness of this book for those practising in the field. We are fortunate that Hamer is prepared to put in the time and effort necessary to ensure that this remains a top-class resource.

Gregory Treverton-Jones QC is a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers, London