My Way
This, sadly for me, is my final Leader’s Column. As the end of my tenure as Leader draws near, I can honestly say that it is has been an honour and privilege to serve the South Eastern Circuit. I hope that I have delivered on my promise to make the Circuit grow and prosper. I have loved every minute of this job (even when, for example, I was bombarded by calls from the same person six times in one day when I was in conference and concerning a matter about something about which I could do nothing). My last six months has been no less rewarding and enjoyable than the preceding ones. It is difficult to pick out the recent highlights but I shall do my best.
This summer, over the first May Bank holiday weekend, four out the five Leaders of the other Circuits, together with their wives, came to stay with Melissa and I at the home in Spain I have had for over 15 years. Picasso lived nearby in a very beautiful house and we went to visit his house where there is a very large egg into which four of five of the Leaders present climbed for a photograph. This is how close the Leaders are to one another and typifies the good relationship between the Circuits.
The Circuit trip to Malta was fabulously enjoyable and informative. Giles Colin must be singled for special praise for his organisation of many aspects of the trip, including arranging our splendid hotel. One of our number, Melissa Coutinho, knew the Sant family whose father, Victor, had been the Deputy High Commissioner for Malta in London. His daughter, Nadine, who is qualified to practice in this jurisdiction and Malta, was kind enough to arrange for us over the course of our trip to meet the Justice Minister, Attorney General and many judges of varying degrees of seniority.
The Annual Dinner was wonderfully well attended. I felt it was a roaring success. The ‘dinner lady’, Tracey Ayling QC, and the rest of the team responsible for organising the event must be heartily congratulated. Lord Neuberger’s after dinner speech was absolutely superb. Knowing that my former surname is Shivitza, he teased me in his speech by saying that he felt my wearing the Leslie tartan could give rise to a passing off action! I wish to thank Adaku for her brilliant speech. She plainly has a great future on the Circuit. I hope you enjoy the photographs on the event in these pages, which were taken by my daughter, Lara, who usually works in the production of short films. I was delighted that she and my son Theodore were able to come to the dinner as my guests.
The Keble Advanced Advocacy Course was up to its usual extraordinarily high standard. Having arrived from Spain at 2am on the Monday, I was at Keble by 5pm the same day, where I a stayed for a week until Saturday evening. I, like all the other trainers, was engaged in teaching the whole time. In my case, this included acting up as the criminal during an ethics class saying all manner of disgraceful things to the barristers. I enjoyed that immensely. Experts’ day was outstanding, involving conferences with and examination of real expert witnesses, including professors and consultants from Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospital in relation to a medical case and a accountants from Deloitte in relation to a financial case. Our guest after dinner speaker for the banquet on the Friday was Lord Grabiner QC. He delivered a fascinating talk of his own advocacy experiences, particularly as a young man. For the criminal case on the final day, we had real jurors, brought in from Oxford and who comment, amongst others, on the performance of the students. Keble is a truly fantastic course. Enormous thanks must go to the joint directors, Philip Brook Smith QC and Philip Bartle QC.
Congratulations to Fiona Jackson for winning our competition, decided by the Executive, to find a suitable strapline for the Circuit. We needed a succinct and memorable phrase to advertise the Circuit and its work. Fiona’s “Your Circuit, Your Voice” perfectly sums up the South Eastern Circuit’s raison d’être. I am sure it will compliment the work of the Circuit for many years to come.
I would encourage all who can to attend the Bar Conference. There are subsidies for young barristers. It is significant that it is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the conference and I am proud to say that the Circuit has supported the conference in all of those years. The Chair of the conference is Kim Hollis QC, who has been a long time Committee member of the Circuit, and the Vice Chair is our very own Fiona Jackson. She will be Chair in 2011. This year the Circuit is running an advocacy workshop session. The two Keble directors, with others, are arranging it and so it is bound to be of an extremely high quality and well worth attending.
The Crown Prosecution Service payment delays in London, and the financial difficulties that this has caused, have been such that in March this year I persuaded the CPS to make, for the very first time, hardship payments to members of the Bar in real financial difficulty. I am extremely grateful to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, and Alison Saunders, Head of CPS London, for agreeing to this. They have been extremely co-operative in setting this up and ensuring that payments have been expeditiously made. I have spent an enormous amount of time negotiating with the CPS on issues such as delays to fees, grading and individual difficulties. The outcome of my dealings with the CPS is something I hope has served the Circuit well.
As Leader I am invited to talk to many parts of the Bar about a number of issues. A good example of this was when a couple of weeks ago, I was one of the panel at the plenary session of the Young Bar Conference, sharing the panel with Nick Green QC, the Chairman of the Bar, Baroness Deech, Keir Starmer QC and Belle Turner (Chair of the YBA). The session was moderated by Nicola Higgins, the YBA Vice Chair. I found it invigorating and instructive. To my mind, the whole conference appeared to me to be a fabulous achievement.
I derive satisfaction from many areas of Circuit business I have been involved with in my time as Leader. I restarted the Masters of Advocacy series lectures, which have lately been fortunate to have such distinguished speaker as Andrew Hochauser QC and David Perry QC. I also restarted the regional roadshows to Circuit Messes. They have proved to be extremely useful to the Messes visited and I hope that my successor will continue with them.
Another feature I introduced was an annual dinner for the Mess Chairs and the Circuit Recorder and Junior. At the dinner, every Mess Chair was present. It enabled them to hear how other Mess Chairs around the Circuit dealt with issues and exchange information with one another to the advantage of the individual Messes and the Circuit as a whole. In another innovation, I brought in the bi-annual co-opting of five members of Circuit Committee to the Executive, which has provided a more vibrant communication link between the members of the Executive and the Committee as a whole. I have also started a new practice of inviting guests to attend Committee meetings to address the meetings and answer questions. During my tenure, we have been fortunate enough to have secured the attendance of all four Presiding Judges, Keir Starmer QC, Nick Green QC, Fergus Randolph, Chair of the European Circuit, Toby Craig, Mr. Justice Fulford and Belle Turner. I hope these ideas continue.
My heartfelt thanks to our very own administrator, Inge Bonner, the two Recorders, Rosina and Fred, and two Juniors, Emily and Adaku. I would also to thank all the Committee and everyone else who has helped, without whom I could not have that done the work that I have. The successes are down to them; any failures are mine alone. My profound thanks, and those of the Circuit, have to go to Oscar, our Treasurer, who does the vital job of keeping control of our spending (and mine in particular). The reality is that he performs his functions with that fine balance of realism and prudence. He is greatly under appreciated.
I am equally grateful to all of the people with whom I have dealt in my time as Leader. I have enjoy many dealings with persons involved in family and civil law, as well as crime, which has enlarged my knowledge of the Bar as a whole to a level I never thought I would have. This has been a wonderful learning experience for me. Regrets? I’ve had a few. But, then again, too few to mention…
I hope I have left the Circuit in at least as good a condition as I found it. I will miss being the Leader enormously but rest assured I shall continue to serve the SEC as a loyal servant for many years to come. I wish my successor well.