QC Solicitor-Advocate and Legal Aid

When celebrating her recent appointment as the first woman QC solicitor/advocate, June Venters QC said in a speech on 24 October 2006 at the Law Society, that the publication of the Carter report in the same week as her appointment 'dampened somewhat her sense of achievement'. She said that the Lord Chancellor maintains that 'without legal aid for family law critical decisions about children's futures cannot properly be made' yet at the same time government policies mean more children will be received into care: 'and we already know what that means more costs for the State, a greater likelihood to commit criminal offences in adult life; less likelihood of educational achievement and a greater risk of a dysfunctional family of their own with all that flows from that'. For the full news story see December [2006] Fam Law.