PODCAST: Alex Aldridge and Kevin Poulter discuss changes at the criminal Bar

The criminal Bar scored a coup this week when – for the first time in recent memory – it got some positive coverage in the right wing press. Sadly, the comments on the online versions of the articles illustrate just how big a challenge it’ll be for criminal barristers to get public opinion on their side in their battle with the government…

Poor public attitudes, hinted Attorney General Dominic Grieve to Legal Cheek‘s Kevin Poulter last month, that criminal barristers will have to change if they are to have any chance of preventing a new era of G4S law.

In this week’s podcast, Legal Cheek editor Alex Aldridge joins Poulter, who’s a solicitor at Bircham Dyson Bell by day, to reflect on whether winning over the public is a realistic goal for the criminal Bar – and, if so, how quickly it can be done.

Alternatively, have criminal barristers been too slow to engage with the issue of how they are perceived by the rest of society – rendering Monday’s court boycott more a collective sharing of pain rather than a realistic attempt to save the Bar as we know it?

Listen to the podcast on Legal Cheek