THE BAR HANDBOOK 2009-10

Description: BOOK REVIEW

THE BAR HANDBOOK 2009-10

By

Nicholas Bacon Simon Garrod

ISBN: 978-1-4057-4445-4

LexisNexis

www.lexisnexis.co.uk

An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

‘IT WILL SURELY BECOME A STANDARD WORK – AS INDISPENSABLE AS AN UP-TO-DATE WHITE BOOK.’ –- Desmond Browne Q.C., Chairman, The Bar Council

Seems startling, doesn’t it, that The Bar Handbook 2008 was actually the first edition of this now definitive volume which has become so ‘indispensable’ to the practitioner that it almost seems to have been around forever. In fact it was originally compiled and published in response to the increasingly urgent need for better regulation of the profession in the public interest, especially following the establishment of the Bar Standards Board in 2006 and the Legal Services Act 2007.

As succinctly expressed in the Handbook’s Introduction, The new 2009-10 edition ‘builds on the success of the original work’, bringing together ‘all the current guidance produced by the Bar Council in a single convenient work of reference.’ At this point the comment is made that the Handbook won’t provide all the answers to every question about practice at the bar in the twenty-first century, but where specific issues are unclear, it functions admirably as an accessible and convenient sign-post to other sources of reference.

Whatever stage you’ve reached in your career at the Bar, the Handbook is structured to cover all the career stages of a barrister and offers practical information in relation to every element of practice, from ‘Qualifying as a Barrister and Entering Practice’ (Part II) to ‘Taxation and Retirement Benefits’ (Part VIII) and (Part IX)’Becoming a QC’.

Details and guidance relating to the profession of barrister are contained herein, including parameters of work, permitted charging arrangements, getting paid, getting redress when not paid, tax and VAT liabilities, insurance, practice planning and advice on good practice with relevant statutory and regulatory obligations for all barristers. A handy Handbook indeed, which also incorporates in full the Code of Conduct of the Bar Council of England and Wales and other material originating from the approved regulator.

As the publishers describe it, The Bar Handbook is: ‘a single-volume compendium of all current guidance material produced by the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board, providing a single point of reference not available before.’ Small wonder there is now a demand for an annually updated edition.

The expression ‘must-have’ may have become a little over-used of late, but in the current climate of continuing change, the Bar Handbook has become a must for Barristers, whether self-employed, in chambers, or at the employed Bar, Barristers’ clerks, practice managers and students as well as solicitors and those hoping either to practice at the Bar, or perhaps interested in its workings will certainly find The Bar Handbook ‘indispensable.’

ISBN: 978-1-4057-4445-4