Standing up for solicitor-advocates

It will be extremely sad if the recent public comments (see below) openly criticising solicitor-advocates, made on behalf of the criminal Bar, are allowed to cause hostility and divisiveness between the two sides of the profession.  There is a need for calm and reconciliation - and for all of us in the criminal justice system to work together to retain and promote its reputation around the world.

Of course there are good and weak advocates, irrespective of whether they are barristers or solicitors. Solicitor-advocates are now accepted in the higher courts; rightly so.  Many are well respected.  The CPS published policy is that they will carry out more in-house advocacy.  We all need to accept the present position and work with it.

I have the highest regard for the criminal Bar.  A great deal of my closest colleagues in the profession are established barristers. But equally it should not be forgotten that there are many extremely competent solicitor-advocates who have considerable experience stretching over many years. They are playing an increasingly important role in the criminal justice system, and are entitled to do so. 

I am sure that the criminal Bar, on mature reflection, will appreciate the importance of working together with solicitors, and to refrain from descending further into what many will see as divisive comments. It is better that we all work together from all sides to maintain respect and to seek to move forward.

Michael Caplan QC is a partner at Kingsely Napley.

Peter Lodder, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “There is a huge increase in the use of higher-court advocates [solicitors who are qualified to act as defence advocates in serious trials].

“The Bar does not say that such an advocate is bad by definition. Some are good, but there are many who are truly appalling – defence solicitors who have never before conducted a crown court trial and have very limited experience in the magistrates’ trials now appear as junior advocates to defend in murder trials.”
The Crown Prosecution Service advocates were equally poor, he said. Some had left the Bar because they had never risen above a modest practice.“Now they have become the leading advocate in murder prosecutions, cases in which they would never have been instructed by the CPS while they remained in private practice.”

He told The Times: “All this is done in the interests of economy, without any regard for the interests of justice. Watching the destruction of the system by the use of apparently cheap and inadequate labour is deeply upsetting and demoralising to the professional Bar.”