The Bar Council was last revamped in 2001, following a major report by Lord Alexander QC, who recommended that the structures be reviewed five years on. Accordingly, Sir Paul Kennedy was appointed last year to chair a working group with that objective. He reported to the council in May 2007.
In many respects, Kennedy found the Bar Council to be working well. The problem is always how to make sure the organisation is truly representative of its membership. Barristers, like most other professionals, are far too busy to spend much time worrying about their professional body – until, that is, something goes wrong. At that point, they become concerned about their representation. The answer, of course, is to make sure the professional body breaks through that wall of indifference and communicates effectively with its membership in good times and bad. Also that it effectively represents the profession in every appropriate area – with government, in the press and with other professions, to name but a few.
