Occasionally, barristers suffer for the vanity.

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The CPS has ruled out special independent advocates for women but has started to use special barristers in prosecuting sex offence cases.

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Lawyers should be free to set up shop both with outside investors and with other species of lawyer, so that barristers could form partnerships with solicitors, for example.

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He also made a quick telephone call and shook hands with his barristers and gardai working in the court, thanking them for their work, before he was led away by prison officers.

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The Bar Council, representing all barristers in England and Wales, believes that poor court management is to blame for the length and cost of long fraud trials, not juries' failure to grasp complex evidence.

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Barristers intend to debate the proposed changes to the criminal justice system, which will pave the way for lawyers to compete for contracts among other reforms.

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That warning is revealing, not least because solicitors and barristers, the two wings of the legal profession, have been quietly ripping off the public purse for years by pursuing cases financed by the taxpayer which had minimal chances of success.

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