Lord Woolf backs calls for more solicitor judges

Solicitors have 'enriched' the judiciary at all levels and their numbers should be encouraged to increase, the Lord Chief Justice told the Bar's annual conference last weekend.Lord Woolf told the gathering of about 500 barristers in London that he was strongly in favour of solicitor recruitment to the judiciary.

'They [solicitors] dominate the district judiciary who are one of our success stories of recent times,' he said.

'They have also made a significant contribution to the circuit bench and they are starting to make a similar contribution to the High Court bench.'Currently, there are two High Court and 87 circuit court solicitor judges.Lord Woolf's remarks were generally welcomed by the Bar leadership.

Roy Amlot QC, the Bar Council chairman, told the Gazette that there was 'no reason why there should not be more solicitor judges'.

However, Mr Amlot tempered his remarks by saying that it was the Bar's view that before those numbers could rise, solicitors 'need to face up to whether they will join the system of soundings conducted by the Lord Chancellor'.

The Law Society withdrew two years ago from the so-called secret soundings system operated by the Lord Chancellor's Department for the appointment of senior judges and QCs, maintaining that it was antiquated and discriminated against solicitor candidates.A Law Society spokeswoman said: 'We welcome the desire for there to be more solicitor judges and look forward to there being more solicitors in the upper ranks of the judiciary.'She said that the Society hoped the appointment of Sir Colin Campbell as the first independent judicial appointments commissioner would lead to improvements in the appointments process.

The Lord Chief Justice also criticised the Bar for its decision last year not to allow solicitors with higher rights of audience to become members of the Inns of Courts.

Lord Woolf described the Bar's ruling as 'ill-advised' since it continued to portray the barristers as being inward looking.

He called on the Bar not to 'repeat the same mistake in relation to advocates of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Public Defender Service'.

Jonathan Ames