What is it like working as a barrister in the 21st century? The independent Bar has transformed in the last 30 years into a commercialised, enterprising profession. Based on interviews with and observation of barristers and chambers' staff, this book identifies key changes that have taken place at the Bar and how these are reshaping and reformulating barristers' professionalism and working culture. This is the first empirical overview of the depth, scope and effects of multiple reforms that have been imposed on the profession. It explores how this once unified profession has fragmented, as the lived experiences of barristers in different practice areas have diverged. Highly specialised sets of chambers now operate like businesses, whilst others, who are dependent on legal aid funding, struggle to survive. This book offers a unique examination of different sites of change: how the chambers model has evolved, how entrepreneurial barristers market themselves, how aspirant law students prepare to enter the profession and how regulatory and procedural reforms have imposed managerial constraints on practitioners. The conclusion considers what the far-reaching changes mean for the prospects of the Bar in England and Wales.

The fourth edition of this respected textbook examines the regulation and conduct of lawyers in England and Wales and addresses new developments in the field, including those in international practice, sexual misconduct, and the environment. Focusing on the practice of, and interrelationship between, solicitors and barristers, the book provides background to current arrangements while exploring contemporary rules of conduct, systems of regulation, and controversies. The four main parts cover client duties, wider obligations, key contexts, and regulation. Parts one to three provide an academic introduction to the subject of lawyers' ethics. They are suitable as a core text for a semester course at undergraduate level, providing grounding for vocational training, such as the Solicitors' Qualifying Examination. Comparisons are made with conduct rules applying in other leading common law jurisdictions where relevant. These parts also explore links between the subject of ethics and the development of lawyers' practical skills. Part four applies the general principles to three elements of regulation: practice, admission, and discipline. The approach throughout is socio-legal. While the essential law is described, relevant social science research informs consideration of issues and debates.

First published in 1982, Augustan England provides ample substance to reinforce the thesis that the years from 1680 to 1730 mark the most decisive stage in the rise of the English professional classes before the 19th century, and that this had profound consequences in maintaining the relative ‘openness’ of 18th century society until the advent of industrialization. This book provides the first ever authoritative study of the professions, as a whole, before the Victorian age. The spectacular growth and prosperity of the professional sector of English society at a time when population growth was minimal is seen by Professor Holmes as a mirror of the transformation of England herself in these same years. The Augustan age was one of high English achievement in many fields, from the flowering of literary genius to the acquisition of a sophisticated financial system and the attainment of Great Power status through two consuming wars. It witnessed a ‘commercial revolution’ and important aesthetic, cultural and scientific advances, many of them centered on the growth of London and on a rejuvenation of provincial urban life. From all these developments the professions derived stimuli; on all of them they left their distinctive stamp. In this study, therefore, they are presented not merely as institutions but as an integral part of the very texture of Augustan England. This is a must read for students and scholars of British history.