Twelve months after his appointment to chair an independent review of the Criminal Legal Aid system, Sir Christopher Bellamy QC, leading the Criminal Legal Aid Review (CLAR), has published the 160 page “Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid”.

The report makes the case for funding for criminal legal aid to be increased for solicitors and barristers as soon as possible to an annual level of ‘at least 15%’ above present levels to ensure that a “level playing field” between defendants and prosecutors was maintained. “£135m is, in my view, the minimum necessary as the first step in nursing the system of criminal legal aid back to health after years of neglect,” warns Sir Christopher as the report tells ministers that funding is vital to stem the exodus of lawyers from criminal justice and the current backlog in the crown court system.

In a written ministerial statement, Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab promises a full response no later than the end of March 2022.

You can read the full report here.

Published on the 15th December, the review and its findings has received considerable media interest including The Times, the BBC and The Law Society Gazette.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today published the independent lessons learned review by John Swift QC, which considers the FCA’s supervisory intervention on Interest Rate Hedging Products (IRHP).

The report is the culmination of over two years of work, in which the Review team considered around a million documents and conducted dozens of interviews with stakeholders. It sets out a full account of the legal and regulatory context, and the history of the FCA’s intervention, before reaching detailed findings and making 21 specific recommendations for the FCA.

The Report is available here.

John Swift QC was assisted by Nikolaus Grubeck and Kristina Lukacova as well as by an Ashurst LLP team led by David Capps and by Kemp Communications.

The Review has been covered in: The Times, Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Reuters, The Times,  Market Screener

At last night’s awards ceremony, Monckton Chambers and its members won two awards – Ben Lask won Junior of the Year for Competition and Monckton Chambers was awarded Competition Set of the Year.

Competition Junior of the Year, Ben Lask, is Standing Counsel to the Competition and Markets Authority. He is described in the most recent Chambers Bar Guide as “very much on top of the issues; he is an accessible barrister and turns things around over a short timescale.” Recent high profile cases include acting for the CMA in Facebook’s unsuccessful appeal concerning the CMA’s use of interim measures in merger investigations and representing Royal Mail and BT in the ongoing Trucks litigation.

Although not winners on the night, we were also delighted that Jon Turner QC and Paul Harris QC were in the shortlist for Competition Silk of the Year and Julianne Kerr Morrison was in the running for Competition Junior of the Year.

The awards, which are based on research for the 2022 edition of Chambers UK Bar, reflect a set’s pre-eminence in key practice areas. They also reflect notable achievements over the past 12 months including outstanding work, impressive strategic growth and excellence in client service.

For further details, see the Chambers and Partners website.

Monckton Chambers is delighted to announce that the ten sets of Chambers participating in the Mentoring Scheme for underrepresented groups have, between them, offered places on the scheme to nearly 200 applicants from groups that are underrepresented at the Bar.

The scheme will make a real contribution to increasing opportunity and diversity at the Bar, by providing mentees with a source of information and advice, and by making it clear that a career at the Bar is open to anyone, from any background.

More details about the scheme are here.

It is open to people from underrepresented groups including women; people from minority ethnic backgrounds; people with disabilities; LGBT+ people; people who spent time in care; and people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

The participating sets of Chambers are:

• Monckton Chambers
• Blackstone Chambers
• Brick Court Chambers
• Essex Court Chambers
• Fountain Court Chambers
• Gatehouse Chambers
• Keating Chambers
• 7 King’s Bench Walk
• One Essex Court Chambers
• 3 Verulam Buildings

Paul Harris QC has won the “Barrister of the Year” category in this year’s The Lawyer Awards. The virtual awards ceremony was hosted by BBC news anchor Huw Edwards, who announced the winners of the 29 awards.

In summarising why Paul was the winner of this award, the presenter highlighted the judges’ recognition of Paul’s trailblazing collective competition law proceedings (CPOs) practice, and in particular his “strong leadership of a novel case” in acting for the opt-out claimants in Walter Hugh Merricks CBE v Mastercard Inc. This was the first mass consumer claim successfully brought under the new collective action regime and the judges were impressed with Paul’s “extremely strong advocacy credentials” in this “relatively new area of law.”

The judges also cited Paul’s “pre-eminence in, and his commitment to, his chosen fields of competition and sports law, as supported by the detailed testimonials by instructing solicitors and clients as to his personal and legal ability, which led further force to his submission”

These testimonials can be accessed here.

The recently launched Chambers Bar UK 2022 ranks 57 individual Monckton barristers across 19 practice areas with many appearing in multiple categories.

Monckton Chambers is one of the most highly ranked sets in the UK as it has been recommended in eleven practice areas; in five of these, Monckton is recognised as a “Band One” leading set:

• Competition
• European Law
• Telecommunications
• Public Procurement
• Indirect Tax

The Set has also been ranked in a further six categories:

• Administrative and Public Law
• Civil Liberties & Human Rights
• Data Protection
• Sports Law
• Environment
• Community Care

Individual members were also recognised as “Leading Individuals” in a further nine categories:

• Aviation
• Commercial Dispute Resolution
• Education
• Immigration
• Local Government
• Public International Law
• Social Housing
• International Human Rights Law
• Consumer

For further details on how Monckton Chambers performed, visit the Chambers and Partners website.

Monckton Chambers is delighted to announce that Antonia Fitzpatrick and Clíodhna Kelleher have accepted invitations to join Chambers following successful completion of pupillage.

Prior to pupillage Antonia was Student Director of the School Exclusion Project. She was also, for six years, a member of St. John’s College and the History Faculty, University of Oxford, holding the positions of Junior Research Fellow and Departmental Lecturer in Medieval History.

Clíodhna Kelleher, a graduate of University College Dublin and Harvard Law School, was the recipient of the Irving R Kaufman Fellowship awarded by Harvard Law School and has won a number of debating championships including the John Smith Memorial Mace and the 2016 ‘Irish Times’ debate individual award.

Antonia and Clíodhna became tenants on 1st October 2021 having experienced a broad range of practice areas as part of pupillage.

In the recently launched Legal 500 UK Bar 2022, a record 55 individual barristers from Monckton Chambers are listed across 16 practice areas with many recommended in multiple categories.
Monckton Chambers has been recommended, as a TOP-TIER set in the following five practice areas:

• Competition
• EU law
• Telecoms (regulatory)
• Public procurement
• Tax – VAT

The Set has also been ranked in a further four areas:

• Administrative and public law (including local government)
• Civil liberties and human rights (including actions against the police)
• Data protection
• Sport

Individual members were also recognised as “Leading Individuals” in:

• Commercial Litigation
• Education
• Fraud:civil
• Immigration (including business immigration)
• International arbitration: counsel
• Public international law
• Social housing