Of all the events in the legal calendar, the most scintillating, glittering and downright glam is undoubtedly the gathering of minds that is the Annual Conference of the General Council of the Bar.

Only last year, Lord Woolf managed to provoke howls of laughter from certain sections
of the profession when he spoke
of his pride in the Bar’s “willingness to embrace change” – which at the time was a little like praising Saddam Hussein’s “willingness to embrace weapons inspectors”.