The head of the Bar Council criticizes Rapp for not interviewing the “thin-skinned” | Dominic Rab

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Outgoing Bar Council Chairman Dominic Raab has been described as “thin-skinned” for failing to meet him, claiming he was ignored by the justice minister for his defense of lawyers.

Derek Sweeting QC, whose term as chair of the professional body representing more than 16,000 lawyers in England and Wales expired at the end of the year, said he had not had a face-to-face meeting with Raab since the latter was appointed Lord Chancellor. In mid-September.

In an interview with The Guardian, Sweeting said: “I still haven’t met him nor expected. I understand he objected to something you said and I have a pretty good idea of ​​what it was.

“All I can say is that if ministers are going to attack lawyers – unfairly, in my view, and the views of so many others – they should expect a strong response. We shouldn’t end up in a situation where we are denied meetings as a result of being decisive. No. Seems to be counterproductive and may be a bit weak style.”

Raab is understood to have excluded comments made by Sweeting to express concern about the Chancellor’s remarks in Parliament when he said there was a “widespread practice” among defense attorneys “to encourage defendants to wait until the moment of trial before making a decision to admit guilt”.

Several criminal lawyers resented Raab’s words, stating that they were misleading and adding to the government’s anti-lawyer rhetoric.

Rapp also infuriated many lawyers for not attending the first physical conference of the Bar Council in two years at the beginning of the month and sending a taped letter instead. To make matters worse, on the day of the convention, he posted a photo on Twitter of himself with two people in roller skates dressed as Christmas candy at a festival in his constituency.

It’s great that the Christmas Fest in Walton opens today – it’s great to see the community outside enjoying festive fun, including Christmas ice skating pudding! pic.twitter.com/xsBPxs2KZw

– Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) November 20, 2021

“It was very poorly received,” Sweeting said. “I understand that a Member of Parliament with a marginal seat would want to be in his constituency on Saturday, and there would be no problem if he had acceded to requests for a meeting in the months since he became Lord Chancellor.”

Rapp’s failure to interview Sweeting comes at a time when the backlog of cases in the Crown Courts, which hear the most serious crimes, is about 60,000, with some trials postponed until 2023. Major bills on judicial review, offenses and sentencing have also been published.

The Guardian understands that the Minister of Justice has met Stephanie Boyce, president of the Law Society, the equivalent professional body for lawyers.

“It’s important to talk to politicians face to face, not all the time, because they have a lot of other priorities, but it’s really interesting what results from these kinds of discussions, not just on my part, but on the part of the part of the politicians who say in Oftentimes, “Oh, I’d actually like to talk about this more.” Often you find that the next conversation is the one where you really get down to work and talk about the things that you’ve identified as common areas of interest, which is why I think it’s Disappointingly, I didn’t have a face-to-face meeting.”

Discussing an eventful year as president, Sweeting vividly compared his personal response to the crisis in Afghanistan to that of Raab, who has been criticized for staying on a family vacation in Crete during the collapse of the Afghan government.

“we [the Bar Council] She did a lot of work in Afghanistan over the summer,” Sweeting said. “I cut my vacation off to do some work on it as well because it was urgent.”

Sweeting, who will take over as a Supreme Court justice on January 11, urged Raab to reconsider.

“I hope there will be a rethink and engagement as soon as possible with my successor,” he said. This year, the Bar Council and I have had a very constructive relationship with officials in the Ministry of Justice [Ministry of Justice], as well as politicians – this is an exception to my experience this year.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: “The Minister of Justice has regularly engaged with the legal sector and will continue to do so.”

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