Criminal law barristers need friends in high places like never before as that side of the profession is seen by many to be in the midst of an existential crisis.
Figures from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) show that 22 per cent of junior barristers and 46 per cent of QCs have ditched criminal work over the past five years. Some have suggested that at that rate of attrition, there will not be a criminal Bar in a decade’s time.
No better time, then, for a hardened criminal hack to take the top slot at the Bar Council, the body that goes to bat with ministers on behalf of 17,500 practising barristers in England and Wales.
Mark Fenhalls QC started his year’s stint as the
