The Times

From His Honour David McCarthy

Sir,

The plan for the grading of barristers by judges supported at the Bar Conference by Lord Neuberger, Master of the Rolls (The Times, Monday) is the most appalling one affecting the profession I have known in the forty odd years I have spent in it.

In a free society one of the important duties of a criminal defence advocate is, where necessary, to stand up for his client, against the judge. If there is a conviction, he must advise his client whether the judge made any mistakes in the trial which would form grounds for an appeal. If there are such grounds, the defence barrister must present and argue those grounds before the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).

How can such a barrister even appear to be doing his duty to his client let alone actually doing it, if he and everyone else knows that his professional future lies in the hands of the trial judge?

Yours faithfully,

David McCarthy