CRIME: An Introduction

Headwinds and Tailwinds: Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste

The backlog of 64,000 cases remains, a year on from the settlement of terms of Lord Bellamy’s review of criminal legal aid – a review that was not fully implemented at the time (the increase was applied only to new cases starting from the end of September 2022, a position reversed by Brandon Lewis KC during his time as Justice Secretary). The disparity created in pay for prosecution work has caused an inevitable dearth of barristers willing to prosecute. This is especially so for rape and other sexual offences, with the CPS plugging the gap by instructing (expensive) KCs.

The situation is exacerbated by a relative shortage of trained barristers, caused in part by a decline in enrolment in the expensive Barrister Training Programme – after which barristers often face a period of unpaid or low-paid work in order to gain experience. Compounding this, the demanding nature of a barrister's job, including long hours, high stress levels and frequent travel, has led to concerns about work-life balance and overall well-being. The legal profession, like many others, faces issues related to retention. Some barristers leave the profession due to burnout or dissatisfaction, or to pursue alternative career paths.

The Bar defines its brand as offering highly trained, specialist barristers that offer lay and professional clients the oft quoted and laboured “gold standard of advocacy”. Circumstance therefore puts much of the onus upon the effective governance of Chambers, to square the circle of meeting this larger demand, without compromising quality. Achieving that outcome may equally help achieve broader benefits within the sector and wider society – avoiding delays in criminal proceedings, increasing access to justice and maintaining diversity and inclusion (in line with the widely accepted view that a lack of diverse representation among barristers can hinder the fair administration of justice).

Operationally, the most effective criminal Chambers have structures in place to allow them to be entirely digital, synchronising diary, video, email, AI and data-sharing/storage platforms. That metamorphosis in practice culture is a result of a combination of factors, but chiefly the realities of an external workload and data sources, rather than the clear benefits of using Chambers' technological and data resources. Whatever the chicken and egg, the mechanics of effective and secure digital data and communication structures have been embraced by almost all practitioners, allowing far greater flexibility and live diary knowledge. (Long past is the overheard sotto voce frustration “all he can click and drag are his fingers and knuckles”.) This technological change (especially remote computing) has allowed considerable portability of practice, triggering an evolution in practitioners’ professional lives over the last decade. This recalibration also benefits them directly in reduced individual practice costs.

The greater challenge to clerks’ rooms remains human. For instance, the necessity of greater Court Video Platform use in turn requires sound communication, tact and planning when dealing with listing offices and the Judiciary. Chambers managers must constantly articulate the costs of risk (the well-publicised cyber-attacks in several Chambers in 2021 are illustrative), not to mention the consequence of failure to comply reasonably with regulatory bodies. Much compliance and redundancy are defaulted into hosted systems, notwithstanding the clear benefits to the user and – most importantly – the client.

However, squaring the circle is by definition impossible. Remote practices can leave junior practitioners feeling isolated. Back in the day, the intangible benefit of direct daily informal, pastoral contact with senior practitioners was especially valued (this ranged from technical procedural knowledge to “don’t worry – even the dogs in the street know that Judge is a fruitcake”… discussion often lubricated via a glass or two of Milk of Amnesia).

Further to a fair and inclusive recruitment process, training is key. Furnival Chambers delivers a structured, weekly advocacy training programme, led by a silk, for all its pupils. Beyond their pupillage award, all pupils received a zones 1-6 Travel Card for their first year. Furthermore, we encourage a “godparent”’ system whereby pupils can be mentored by a junior barrister. The collegiate spirit is consolidated further by monthly social events (Furnival Chambers adjoins a brasserie, as well appointed as it is well run.) A generous cashflow relief for returning mothers aids the retention of highly trained and experienced barristers – along with their professional contacts. In step with belief in equal opportunities for all and to promote diversity at the Criminal Bar, Chambers offers four funded (GBP500) five-day mini-pupillages between 1 June and 1 September, with the aim of attracting young people who would otherwise have been unable to carry out an unpaid mini-pupillage and providing an introduction to a career at the Bar. It is hoped the scheme will help broaden horizons and ambition by giving mini-pupils confidence in a professional environment, and increase diversity in under-represented areas of the profession. Engagement with 10,000 Black Interns and similar schemes also helps, with an emphasis on setting targets and not just meeting quotas.

No practice governance is perfect. Progressive Chambers will testify that such engagement with individual practices achieves practical and commercial benefits, whatever the risk of the perceived ESG virtue-signalling, or green-washing. Rather, real-world policy application allied to technical solutions greatly improves service delivery and simultaneously presents their own people with a sustainable future.