WILL the Lord Chancellor lose his famously refurbished apartments? Last week Lord Falconer of Thoroton signalled the demise of his once-grand office, announcing the imminent end to his role as head of the judiciary. Under the Government’s constitutional reforms he is also giving up the role of Speaker — peers have agreed to elect their own. But his Pugin-designed rooms with their famous £300-a-roll wallpaper — the legacy of his predecessor — is associated with being Speaker. Last week Lord Falconer appeared to indicate that there was no need for him to move out. He insisted that he did not live in the apartments — he only had an office there. The reception rooms were used for charity events, so the apartments, he said, were used in a “very responsible way” and primarily for state purposes. “That works well.”
DESPITE the prospect that he might have to move back to Selbourne House in Victoria and lose his view of the Thames, Falconer was in ebullient form last week. After delivering the KPMG annual lecture (on the legal services market) he took questions. One was on legal aid. Lamenting the decline of civil legal aid, he said that the issue needed addressing urgently. If he found himself addressing an audience of legal aid practitioners, they were likely all to be middle-aged men like himself. “What is more pathetic than that?” That, muttered one solicitor, is because he has driven the younger ones away with low rates of pay.
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HOW hard is it becoming to recruit High Court judges? Michael Beloff, QC, President of Trinity College, Oxford, thinks that things are little better in recent years — and he should know. Beloff used to chair the Senior Salaries Review Body’s judicial sub-committee. Giving the Neill lecture at All Souls’ College last week, he noted the concerns of the SSRB in its 2002 report that poor pay could damage recruitment. “I am sceptical,” he added, “ as to whether the position has truly improved.” He said he could name at least ten senior silks who have “resisted the temptations of office”. In 2004 the average drop in earnings for a barrister going to the High Court was 53 per cent. Pay was not the only factor that deterred people but the implications of such figures were obvious, he said.
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SOLICITORS who have moaned for years about the Law Society can now do something about it. The solicitors’ professional body has launched the biggest consultation of the profession to discover what services solicitors really want from their national body. The “Have Your Say” consultation will run for the next three months and determine the future shape of the Law Society’s non-regulatory work — or even if solicitors want to pay for it at all. President Kevin Martin said: “I urge all solicitors to have their say by completing the online questionnaire (deadline April 21) at www.haveyoursaylawsociety.org.uk.” Let’s hope that he is ready for the response. John Hayes, former chief executive of the society, used to say: “It’s a step too far to expect people to love their professional body.”