A pupil-supervisor who borrowed language from a mob film to express his extreme dislike of a colleague has had a £1,500 fine upheld.
In September last year employed barrister Richard Craven was disciplined by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) for engaging in conduct which was likely to bring the legal profession into disrepute. The precise nature of the conduct?
“Sending an email to two pupils and another lawyer quoting and/or repeating a comment about a female solicitor that ‘we should open her up. I don’t just mean a little stab in the leg, I mean do the cunt'”.
The charming line is apparently an adaptation of something said in mobster film ‘Bonded By Blood’.
Happily for Craven, news of the incident at David Phillips & Partners was overlooked by the press at the time. But yesterday’s appeal of the BSB’s decision attracted attention on Twitter.
Barrister wrote of a partner at his firm, 'We should open her up. I don’t just mean a little stab in the leg, I mean do the c*nt’.
— CourtNewsUK (@CourtNewsUK) February 5, 2014
A follow-up court report describes Craven — whose £1,500 fine was upheld by the High Court yesterday — as “gangster-obsessed”.
By the way, there’s an interesting twist in the tail of this story. The name of the barrister with whom Craven used to share pupil supervision duties at David Phillips & Partners?
A certain Steven Pidcock, who left the firm in 2012 after being reprimanded for apparently calling his pupil, amongst other things, “fucking mental” and “Paul’s Magistrates Court bitch”. It must have been fun being a baby barrister at David Phillips & Partners under that pair! Craven is believed to have also left David Phillips & Partners.
We reported on the latest instalment of the Pidcock saga earlier this morning.
Update 12pm: The BSB has issued this comment on yesterday’s appeal:
“The Visitors to the Inns of Court yesterday handed down judgment in Richard Craven and the Bar Standards Board. We are pleased that the Visitors were unanimous in their decision that the charge brought against Mr Craven is proved and so dismissed his appeal. We further note the comments by Mr Justice Silber that “this was a clear case in which the appellant’s conduct was likely to bring the Bar into disrepute” and so confirmed the Bar Standards Board’s original view that Mr Craven’s behaviour was disrespectful and entirely unacceptable.”