Nicholas Bacon QC
Congratulations to specialist costs counsel Nick Bacon who has been elevated to Queen’s Counsel with effect today.
He joins Jeremy Morgan QC as only the second barrister to become a QC on the back of his costs work.
The new RTA claims process, not to mention any Jackson reforms, are likely to keep them both busy for the foreseeable future.
He joins Jeremy Morgan QC as only the second barrister to become a QC on the back of his costs work.
The new RTA claims process, not to mention any Jackson reforms, are likely to keep them both busy for the foreseeable future.
posted by Simon Gibbs at
5:42 AM
1 Comments:
Do we have to have this awful cliche "specialist costs counsel"? Do people talk about "specialist commercial counsel" or "specialist judicial revivew counsel"? Messrs Morgan & Bacon are barristers like any other, whose practice happens to include a field which is about 47.5% ordinary contract, 47.5% knowledge of civil procedure(ie interpretation of the CPR, which needs to be mastered in almost every area of civil practice), and perhaps at most 5% knowledge of principles special to costs. Why is an argument about whether a CFA is enforceable different from an argument about whether a consumer credit agreement is enforceable, which almost every barrister in general civil practice has experience of? The answer is that it isn't! I have nothing against Messrs Bacon, Morgan and others - indeed, Mr Morgan in particular is a brilliant lawyer and the real tragedy is that he is pigeonholed as "costs counsel". But I would honestly say that in 80% plus of cases where "costs counsel" are instructed, often on hourly rates more usually seen from leading commercial or tax counsel, the solicitor would have been at least as well off sticking with counsel in the underlying case, who would be well able to deal with the issues, would be cheaper per se, and who would not even need to read in!
By
Jacques Hughes, At
22 March, 2010 07:07
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