Law Commons^™

A Cultural Challenge For The Western Australian Legal Profession: A Lack Of Diversity At The Wa Bar?, Jill Howieson, Tomas W. Fitzgerald

Law Papers and Journal Articles

At the request of the Western Australian Bar Association, the authors undertook a study into issues of diversity at the Western Australian Bar. Members of the Association had noticed, but not specifically studied, various demographic imbalances in the Bar’s constitution. A review of the literature revealed that there was a paucity of statistical analysis of the makeup of Australian barrister associations generally, let alone into any specific reasons as to how and why a demographic imbalance might exist. Recognising that a clearer picture of the breakdown of the demographics of the Western Australian legal profession and of the specific cultures …

Guilty Pleas Or Trials: Which Does The Barrister Prefer?, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Barristers in England and attorneys in the United States have been upbraided for pursuing their interests to their clients' detriment in recommending guilty pleas over trials. While this accusation against American attorneys could be true since their incentives are sometimes skewed to favor guilty pleas, it is not accurate with respect to barristers in England. This is because the latter’s selfish incentives--to maximize income and avoid sanction--incline them to prefer trials over guilty pleas. In Melbourne and Sydney, barristers have never been similarly accused. Indeed, the topic has not been studied. Based on interviews with legal professionals in those cities, …

Ensuring Able Representation For Publicly-Funded Criminal Defendants: Lessons From England, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While there are skilled private defense lawyers who enthusiastically represent indigent criminal defendants, too often defense lawyers whose income depends upon appointments provide deplorable representation. The problem is well known and pervasive. In addition to the blizzard of claims on appeal of ineffective representation, defenders' efforts have been savaged by judges and by fellow lawyers. These nagging problems persist: to induce private lawyers to represent their clients effectively by eliciting the defendant's story and managing their relationship in a way that at least does not displease the defendant; investigating his and the prosecution's positions; pressing the prosecution for discovery, for …

Representing Indigents In Serious Criminal Cases In England's Crown Court: The Advocates' Performance And Incentives, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While indigent defendants charged with serious criminal offenses can be represented by lawyers in the United States and by barristers and solicitors in England and Wales. Gauging the quality of that help is an important but elusive inquiry. This article has two purposes: to map how the indigent criminal defendant charged with very serious offenses is represented in England's Crown Court, and to examine whether economic incentives can induce the defendant's representatives to perform as expected.

While barristers profess to be skilled advocates, and while many lawyers have likewise extolled the barrister's advocacy, testing the point is extremely difficult. Apart …

English White Paper Law Reforms: An Outline For Equal Access To Justice?, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is highly likely that by the end of 1989, legislation proposing the most dramatic changes in the English legal profession in this century will be introduced by the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain in the House of Lords. If Lords approve the legislation, it will be sent to the House of Commons early in 1990 and will become effective by Royal Assent shortly thereafter. The Lord Chancellor's reforms will abolish the barristers' monopoly of audience in higher courts, partially limit the statutory bar on multidisciplinary and multinational partnerships, introduce a modified contingency fee, permit building societies and banks to …

Middlemen Of The Law: An Ethnographic Inquiry Into The English Legal Profession, John Flood

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The accomplishments of empirical research are often presented in a context that fails to show the process by which the results came about. This article examines the problems, hitches, and struggles encountered in a research project carried out on the English bar. And emphasis is given to the difficulty of tackling hitherto unexplored occupations that have had a long history of resisting research.

Book Review. Solicitors And The Wider Community By David Podmore, John Flood

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Barristers' Clerks, John Flood

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This paper is based on a participant-observational study of barrister's clerks conducted in 1976. The results of the study are reported in the author's thesis entitled Barrister's Clerks.