The criminal justice system in England & Wales is under siege.
Many have written about this – so I do not need to repeat the litany of examples in this podcast review post.
John Cooper QC has produced a manifesto for the Criminal Bar Association Vice-Chairman’s position and talks to NorthpodLaw in an excellent podcast which I can thoroughly recommend.
NorthPodLaw describe the contents:
The subjects up for discussion include the BPTC aptitude test and the conflicting interests between the providers pockets and the quality of the candidates; potential strike action; how to get the CBA out of London and engaging with wider Bar; and why the Bar and Solicitors need to be a unified fighting force but not a unified profession.By the way – To vote, you must be a CBA member and you will need to visit www.criminalbar.com with your membership number to hand.
I see that John Cooper QC, who I have had the pleasure of meeting and podcasting with, has taken up blogging with the wonderfully titled “Shadow of The Noose” blog – and you can read his manifesto for the Vice Chair position at the CBA there
Continuing with podcasts…
Legal Cheek has interviewed Emily Allbon of City University’s excellent Lawbore blog.
Well worth a listen: The Future of Legal Blogging
AND… I have managed to do a couple of podcasts myself in the last week…
Quite impressed that John Cooper, in addition to all his other achievements, had appeared on ‘Country File’!
On a serious note, I thought John was very open about the need for law schools not to “exploit” students, but rather to support them in their ambition to succeed at the criminal bar.
The initiatives which John’s taken part in, as regards social mobility, and to improve the realism of perceptions of a career at the criminal bar, are very commendable I feel, and I wish John well in his bid to become the Vice-Chairman of the CBA.
The bar is in crisis? Why? For the very reason that Mr Cooper identifies. If Mr Cooper is so much in favour of continuity of representation then why doesnt he simply seek admission and practice as a criminal defence solicitor? After all, for him to suggest by not doing so that being a bewigged advocate is somehow better than not being a bewigged advocate, what does this say about the nature of the basis of excellence in advocacy? Our cousins in many states of the Americas and Antipodes have fused professions, why not us? Why doesn’t Mr Cooper simply become a solicitor and then prepare and present cases, allowing for his favourite idea of continutiy of representation? Is he saying that somehow the system in these states where one solicitor (who is also counsel) prepares and presents a case – from watchouse to final jury trial is somehow flawed, or is he saying that one needs a wig to do it? For years, the best graduates have for the most part become solicitors, even if we havent felt the need to wear a wig to have our arguments heard since about the early 19th Century.
[…] It is furthermore noteworthy that eminent blogger @CharonQC has lent his support to John Cooper QC with the following (see blogpost): […]