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26 November 2020
Issue: 7912 / Categories: Legal News , Covid-19 , Profession , Constitutional law
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NLJ this week: The Bar in 2020

Bar Council chair Amanda Pinto QC reflects on an unpredictable year, in this week’s NLJ

It was supposed to be about Brexit and criminal legal aid reform. It turned out rather differently, after COVID-19 struck in March. Pinto notes her pride in the way the Bar adapted so quickly. But there were other unexpected events in 2020.

‘We did not foresee the day when the UK government would admit to breaching international law in a “specific and limited way”, writes Pinto.

There was also the ‘pivotal moment of realisation’, after the killing of George Floyd by police officers in the US, that ‘despite our efforts…we had not done enough to address the daily problems and the career trajectories for many of our talented Black members’. 

@thebarcouncil

MOVERS & SHAKERS

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

Commercial property and child law teams expand with senior hires

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Set expands London and Singapore offering with senior international disputes hires

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Firm strengthens real estate and litigation teams with partner promotions

NEWS
Behind the profession’s polished exterior, lawyers are ‘internally drained rather than physically tired’, according to a stark assessment of burnout in legal practice
Five years after the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force, concerns remain that the family courts continue to minimise allegations of abuse in child contact disputes
Uber has built a formidable strategy for insulating itself from liability for drivers’ conduct, but the legal terrain differs sharply between the US and England and Wales
The Civil Justice Council’s review of Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 could mark the end of what one commentator calls an ‘outdated’ and overly technical regime governing solicitor-client fee disputes
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 marks a constitutional watershed by severing the centuries-old link between hereditary titles and automatic membership of the upper chamber
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