Bar Council pledges to alter vacancy ads over need to ‘attend Saturday meetings’

The Bar Council has pledged to change the way they advertise vacancies on their committee in the future, after Jewish News questioned an announcement for a vacancy which included a demand to “attend Saturday morning meetings either in person or virtually.”

An advert, posted online this week, called for practising barristers with over seven years in practice to apply for the vacancy on one of the committees that do representational work for body.

Setting out the expected duties the advert for the role said members of the Bar Council are “expected to attend Saturday morning Bar Council meetings” and added “this is a good opportunity for members of the Bar to gain an insight into the work of the Bar Council and to have a voice on issues affecting the profession.”

Jewish News contacted the Council to remind them that demand for work on Shabbat obviously leaves Orthodox Jewish QCs unable to apply for the post.

Simon Myerson, the Leeds-based QC, who keeps Shabbat, was amongst those to raise concerns about the Bar Council’s continued insistence on attendance at Saturday meetings tweeting:”But not if you’re an Orthodox Jew. Can’t we do better nowadays?”

In response a Bar Council spokesperson told Jewish News:“Changing the day of the full Bar Council meetings has been debated on numerous occasions but no agreement on alternative arrangements has ever been reached.

“If a member of the Bar Councilwas unable to attend on religious grounds, then we would enable the person to make comments in writing in advance and arrange a proxy vote. Going forward we will be changing the information about Bar Council appointments when they are advertised.”

But the QC Myerson responded by saying:”It’s not really a huge step forward.
“If someone wants to stand, they want to contribute. Not being able to attend a single meeting essentially prevents that contribution.
“I’m sure arranging meetings for a lot of people is difficult. “But barristers are used to surmounting difficulty.”