Jon Robins salutes SB for shining a light on the dark underbelly of modern legal practice
‘I am Secret Barrister,’ went the cry. The anonymous blogger seemed to speak for the entire beleaguered criminal defence profession. SB’s book was a message that all lawyers could rally behind to protest the government’s wrecking ball.
One book might well prove more effective at explaining the depth of the crisis of our broken justice system than the combined efforts of all the profession’s representative groups in the last 20 years. But because it is very effective public relations doesn’t mean it’s an entirely comfortable read for lawyers.
SB shone an unforgiving light on the dark underbelly of modern legal practice. Not every defence lawyer is a plucky defender of the vulnerable against the overbearing might of the state; not everyone is a legal aid hero. Some are hopeless and others are downright dangerous. Meet Keres & Co: Secret Barrister’s savage depiction of a defence firm whose solicitors (‘amoral charlatans...’) milk the system, pocket the fees without a care for
