Judgment day casts doubts on equal opportunities

Lord Falconer QC, not content with bearing most of the flak for the Millennium Dome debacle, has turned his talents to equally controversial areas.

The Times (25 June) reported how the 'affable' Lord Falconer, 'now in charge of the criminal justice system, has fired his opening salvoes in the battle for reform'.

These opening salvoes being to 'infuriate his erstwhile professional colleagues' by 'suggesting that lawyers' fee structures should be examined to ensure that they do not spin out cases', and adding for good measure that 'solicitors and barristers played a part in the culture of delay by over-aggressive questioning in court'.

This attack, unsurprisingly, drew 'swift response' from defence solicitors, with Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, wryly observing that 'I'm sure Lord Falconer has many friends, but I doubt if many of them are criminal lawyers'.

The Independent followed suit, claiming that 'defence lawyers are the bogeymen of the criminal justice system' (25 June).

'Whilst defendants are always innocent until proven otherwise,' the paper said, 'the men and women chosen to represent them in court appear to be afforded no such right.'

The law was under attack in another traditional area this week, with new research showing that 'the system for appointing judges is failing women, who continue to be under-represented among all ranks of the judiciary' (The Independent, 25 June).

Figures, produced by Kate Malleson of the London School of Economics, showed that the Lord Chancellor's much-heralded attempts to increase the equality of opportunity for judicial applicants have failed.

'The rate of change is not improving,' the report claimed.

'The number of women on the bench is still too low and shows the system is still a merit-based class system which favours those which come from elite chambers.'

The issue cropped up again this week, as Britain's first Asian judge, Judge Mota Singh, used his retirement speech to say that 'he would like to see more ethnic minority QCs' (The Times, 28 June).

Speaking after 22 years on the bench, Judge Singh also took issue with the Director of Public Prosecutions Sir David Calvert-Smith's recent claim that 'almost everyone in Britain is a racist'.

Claiming that he 'had never personally experienced discrimination', Judge Singh did admit that 'everyone - including myself - has prejudices, but I will never allow them to affect my judgment'.

Another potential headline grabber - the possibility of a British Enron or Worldcom - was causing lawyers sleepless nights this week.

The Financial Times reported how 'law firms themselves are beginning to move risk awareness up the agenda', with Eversheds, for example, 'running a quality task force to look at the softer aspects of risk' (25 June).

Although John Reynolds, London managing partner of US firm McDemott Will & Emery, admitted that 'you cannot rule against basic human nature', he hoped that the improved training sessions would 'make people think about what they are doing and question whether the partner really does have all the answers.'

Victoria MacCallum