Call to Merge 'Two-Tier' Legal System

The Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, has called for the centuries-old distinctions between solicitors and barristers to be scrapped under a united legal profession. The president of the Society dismissed the Bar as "an anachronism" and said the professions should merge within a few years. Speaking at the Society's annual conference, the president said: "We live in a multicultural, multi-racial and multi-faceted society. Yet we have a judiciary that is monochrome and one-dimensional. Most senior judicial appointments come from barristers' Chambers, with only one solicitor appointed a high court judge in the last five years!"

The Law Society is also calling on the government to abolish the rank of Queen's Counsel among senior barristers. The Society says the present system of creating QCs is outdated and elitist. About 900 of the country's top barristers, including the former prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair, are awarded QC status, which allows them to charge higher fees. The Law Society believes there is no place for the silk or Queen's Counsel in a modern, competitive profession as it creates an artificial market for an exclusive group.

The president of the Law Society said: "The system we have for appointing judges and QCs is more appropriate to the 19^th century than the 21^st, and it has all the elements of an 'old boys' network' and discriminates against solicitors, women and ethnic minorities." The president also suggested that the Law Society was the "obvious choice" to regulate the new profession. The Bar Council, which represents barristers, dismissed this suggestion as "a Mickey Mouse policy dreamed up in Disneyland", claiming that "...it passes neither the consumer interest test nor will it serve the interests of justice."

The Law Society wants a judicial appointments commission to be set up and open, objective criteria to be used.

The Bar Council said any system is capable of improvement but added that "QCs are recognised by the public as being supremely independent. People understand the principle of having a strong advocate in court."

The Law Society's proposals on judicial appointments will be submitted to an inquiry set up by the Lord Chancellor to look into the matter. However, the Lord Chancellor made it clear when he established the inquiry that it would consider modifications rather than wholesale reform.

Task 2. What answers could you give to the following questions?

1. What opinion of the British judiciary was expressed by the president of the Law Society?

2. Why is the Law Society calling on the government to abolish the rank of Queen's Counsel among senior barristers?

3. Who does the system of appointing judges and QCs discriminate against?

4. What counterarguments are put forward by barristers?

Task 3. Read the text, sum up the information and say what lawyers'
titles in Russia are known to you.

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