High-flying OwenThe Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, was clearly in a giving mood in the week before Christmas and righted a terrible wrong that Obiter has had cause to note before.

The current barrister-heavy government has happily rewarded recent Bar Council chairmen with various exciting new jobs: Dan Brennan, the 1999 chairman, is now in the House of Lords, alongside Peter Goldsmith (1995).

David Penry-Davey (1996) and Heather Hallett (1998) sit on the High Court bench.

But what about poor old Robert Owen (1997), we wondered.

What had he done wrong? Whatever it was, he is now back in the good books and last month finally made it on to the High Court bench as well.

We bet that last year's chairman, the splendidly posh son-of-a-judge Jonathan Hirst, will not have to wait that long.