Thread by @robinthemint

A painful reminder of the disaster that was Grayling whilst at the MOJ. If the legal profession have not stood up to him he would have abolished client choice of legal representation & imposed other bizarre unsustainable changes but never held accountable
theguardian.com/society/2019/m…

I was very proud to be in a leadership role along with Bill Waddington @bill_wow, Jon Black @jonblackbsb Michael Turner QC of @TheCriminalBar. Together & unified the profession showed how to fight Grayling to avoid a disaster like the probation service. Is there a lesson here?

And a lesson not so much for the leadership of professional bodies but the membership about the value of unity in the face of adversity. About the need to support rather than betray colleagues by selfishly failing to support. For one brief shining moment unity prevailed & we won.

Looking forward so far as possible the professional bodies should work together and feed into the current review of legal aid not to gain a small margin here or a small edge there but to build a sustainable for the whole profession within the CJS. That must include investment.

A sustainable future for the whole profession that takes into account external factors such as a flexible response to fluctuating workloads and the need to enhance the quality of representation without a tick box bureaucratic approach. I wish the leaders of the profession well.

@threadreaderapp please unroll