It must be a good idea to at least approach and offer a meet. We have had a short period of calm and I'd hope that can continue.

I am however concerned as others- re lack of London representation - yet Mr Bell's clerk????! Crown court trials make up a very small percentage of all work as we all know- yet I fear the panel may focus upon this area for various legit and not so legit reasons.

Kind Regards

Matheos Lefteris (Barrister)

Partner

Onuma & Co LLP

Kingsbury House, 468 Church Lane

Kingsbury, London, NW9 8UA

DX: 42812 KINGSBURY

Telephone: 020 8200 2446 Fax: 020 8043 2087

Emergency 24-hour contact number: 07535 649 298

Email: ml@onumallp.co.uk

Secure Email:matheos.lefteris@onumasolicitors.cjsm.net

Website: www.onumallp.co.uk

Crim Lit Logo

This e-mail is sent by and on behalf of Onuma & Co LLP. Its contents and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. If you are not an intended recipient the dissemination and/or copying of the e-mail and its attachments are prohibited. If you have received this in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and then delete the e-mail completely from your system.

Although this e-mail and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they are virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Onuma & Co LLP for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt or use.

Authorised and regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority - SRA No. 620386.

On 5 Jun 2016, at 23:01, Greg Foxsmith <gregfoxsmith@msn.com> wrote:

Like all members I received an email earlier asking "Who will be the first to use the all-member email group?"

Ok, here goes:-

Topic: Gary Bell and the Advisory Committee

You will all know that in his January announcement about abandoning two-tier contracts, Mr Gove also said

"I intend to ensure the Legal Aid Agency can better support high quality advocacy. Furthermore, I intend to appoint an advisory council of solicitors and barristers to help me explore how we can reduce unnecessary bureaucratic costs, eliminate waste and end continuing abuses within the current legal aid system. More details will follow in due course."

(Full statement here https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/changes-to-criminal-legal-aid-contracting )

All was then silent until without prior consultation we learned last week that the "advisory council" is to be chaired by Gove's friend, controversial QC Gary Bell, who invites contributions as set out here http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/analysis/features/criminal-justice-new-advisory-council/5055458.fullarticle?adfesuccess=1

I intend to write to Gary Bell QC setting out concerns about his bar-dominated panel, the lack of any London solicitor or anyone with expertise on magistrates court or police station attendances, and his publicly stated hostile views on solicitor advocates.

I nonetheless propose in the letter to offer to meet, to ensure the views of the LCCSA membership feed in to his panel.

So: questions for members-

Am I right to meet Bell, or should we ignore his self-appointed committee and liase with MOJ direct?

Would members also like to invite him to a members meeting in London where you can all have an opportunity to share your views?

REMEMBER-IF YOU REPLY TO THIS EMAIL YOUR REPLY GOES TO ALL MEMBERS. IF YOU PREFER TO SEND YOUR THOUGHTS TO ME INDIVIDUALLY, EMAIL ME ON gregfoxsmith@msn.com

And if you don't wish to receive responses on this or other topics, you can unsubscribe as set out in the earlier email

With best wishes,

Greg

Greg Foxsmith, Independent Advocate

07980 846330

President, LCCSA (www.lccsa.org.uk)

To unsubscribe from the LCCSA Members eGroup click here.

To take a break from receiving emails from the LCCSA Members eGroup click here.

To resume receiving emails from the LCCSA Members eGroup click here.