in August 2007 right at the start of Pink Tape, I wrote a post called 'What's the difference between a barrister and a solicitor?' Although that post is almost 20 years old it remains one of the all time most visited pages on this blog. Surprisingly, it remains more or less accurate (though it has a surprising number of typos and missed capitals), and it appears that it remains as needed as ever - a recent post on LinkedIn described continuing misinformation that perpetuate the idea of barristers being better or higher than solicitors. That prompted me to take another look at my old post. I thought that I'd just give the 2007 post a bit of spit and polish, to make sure it is applicable to 2026. So here goes... (if you want to read the original post you can read that here). You will notice that I didn't mention legal executives in my original post, I think because I was trying to keep things simple. But it seems important to add them in to this updated version, because they are one of...

The news broke this week that Sir James Munby, towering figure in family justice, died suddenly on New Year's Day. I have been thinking since about what to say here about him. He was often the subject of posts on Pink Tape, right the way back to its inception before 2010, and I have spent the morning down a rabbit hole reminding myself of all the things I have written about him - from the exasperated or irreverant posts, through to more serious posts where his judgments, speeches or 'Views' were analysed and pored over. In turn, that has led me back to the judgments and other writings, and of his work as President which my posts were marking. There are already some lovely tributes available, some gathered together in this Gazette piece, some arriving in our inboxes from the Chairs of various associations and carrying the message from the current President of the Division Sir Andrew, and some on social media - and I am sure there will be others in coming days. I only appeared in front...

I'm away at the moment, trying to decompress after another year that can be best described as a mixed bag. Some joy, some loss, much hard work. But as the clock strikes midnight at the end of 2025 I will shed one hat and put on another. I will stop being the Chair of the Transparency Project, and become (as if by magic) the Vice Chair of the FLBA. My feelings are mixed about this too. Excitement and trepidation about the FLBA, and sadness and hope about the Transparency Project. It isn't healthy for any one organisation to have the same leader forever, so I hope that in stepping down from the TP I will also free it up to become something more than 'Lucy's pet project' (it is much more than that, because it has always been very much a team effort, but that is the perception), and something more enduring. I'll still be involved in TP, but it's time for others to take it forward. In the same way, I hope that new hands and eyes at the FLBA will also do that organisation some good -...

I had plans this week. To finish my VAT return early, tie up all my loose ends and publish a stellar post on Pink Tape to see out 2025 with. But I was waylaid. Partly by some lurgis, which I have finally vanquished, and partly due to a troublesome phone download. So instead you get this dross. Digital data...phone downloads to be precise. Every member of the family bar has been there. Fear of your search filters filtering out the nugget of important information means that it sometimes feels easier to just ask for all data from a device within a specified time period. Except. If the person who owns that phone is under the age of 40 the likelihood is that what will be produced is a haystack of mountainous proportions, liberally sprinkled with things they don't want other people to see and which, frankly, we don't much want to look at either. And things which need urgent weeding or redacting. And when that happens some poor sod (usually counsel) is going to have to sift through it....