CANDIDATE INFORMATION BOOKLET
GOVERNMENTLEGAL SERVICE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND
APPOINTMENT OFCIVIL PANELS
AND
JUNIOR CROWN COUNSEL
Senior/A/B/C/D Panel
Thank you for your interest in the Government Civil Panels. This note provides essential information for all Applicants:
The completed application and reference forms must be submitted by email onlyno later than 12:00 hours on 9thJune 2017 to
PLEASE READ IT BEFORE COMPLETING THE APPLICATION FORM.
- General Background
The Government Legal Service Northern Ireland (GLSNI)[1] is appointing Counsel by means of an open advertisement and application process to the Government Civil Panels. The Government Civil Panels comprise four Panels of junior Counsel and one Panel of senior Counsel to undertake civil work in the Courts and Tribunals in Northern Ireland. The purpose of the Civil Panels is to provide Government office holders with access to the best legal advice and advocates for its legal work.
The respective participant units within the GLSNI provide legal services in civil matters for the departments of the Northern Ireland Executive and the departments of the United Kingdom Government and a number of public bodies, public office holders and judicial office holders in civil matters in Northern Ireland. Additionally, other public bodies[2] associated with, but not members of, the GLSNI will be permitted access to the Civil Panels.
The applications, and references, will be considered by a selection Panel. The work of Selection Panels will be overseen by a Moderating Panel, chaired by an independent member, and will also include the Crown Solicitor, the Departmental Solicitor, the Deputy Departmental Solicitor and Senior Crown Counsel.
Appointments will be made by GLSNI upon recommendation of the ModerationPanel.
It is proposed that the Civil Panels will be effective from 1st July 2017 and appointments will be for a fixed period of 5 years. The GLSNI reserves the right to amend these timescales.
While there is a particular need for Counsel with demonstrable knowledge of public law, the GLSNI wishes to appoint Counsel to cover a wide range of legal expertise as outlined in Annex A. Please note, however, that this is not anexhaustive list.
The legal requirements of the GLSNI will vary over time and appointment to any of the Government Civil Panels is nota guarantee ofany work.
The size of each Panel will be determined by the needs of the GLSNI. It is expected that the A, B and C Panels will comprise up to 52Counsel. The Panel of Senior Counsel will comprise up to 15 Counsel.The Dpanel will comprise up to 10 Counsel.
Advisory and representational work is allocated between panels on the basis of court level, complexity and impact. The senior, A, B and C panels are eligible for any work appropriate to the experience required for that panel. The Dpanel are may be required to undertake occasional independent advisory or representational work. In general the work may involve assisting in preparing papers for a major case, or inquiry, (carrying out disclosure exercises, research support, or drafting or checking secondary legislation (training will be provided for this last category)).
In order to increase the opportunity for appointment or promotion between the Panels appointments will be for a limited period of 5 years, subject to satisfactory performance under the terms and conditions of appointment. The GLSNI reserves the right to extend these timescales.
Junior Counsel who attain silk within the 5 year duration of these Panels may be considered for promotion to the Senior Panel upon further application.
Where a panel member takes Silk, he or she can continue to act in cases where they have already been instructed.
Applications for the Senior Panel will also be by application save that all past Junior Crown Counsel who have since taken silk will be invited to join as ex officio members.
Refreshment exercises may take place during the life of the Panels. Existing Panel members may apply for appointment to a more senior panel in such exercises, if they then meet the criteria for that Panel.D panel members may be invited to apply for appointment to the C panel as adjunct members.
GLSNI reserves the right to make additional appointments from the 2017 Civil Panel Merit list.
All appointments will be based on merit and conducted by fair and open competition.
Terms and conditions are attached at Annex B.
- Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must at the date of application be barristerscalled to the Northern Ireland Bar.You may only apply for the relevant panel which aligns to your years of experience. Applicants must be Belfast based.
Applicants for the “D” Panel should have completed their pupillage (to include restricted any period of restricted practice) and have less than 2 years experience in actual practice.
Applicants for the “C” Panel should have at least 2 and less than 5 years experience in actual practice.
Applicants for the “B” Panel should have at least5 and less than 10 years experience in actual practice.
Applicants for the “A” Panel should have at least 10 years in actual practice.
Applicants for the Senior Panel should be QCs, or have been notified before the closure date of this competition that they will be admitted to the Inner Bar, and have extensive experience of working for or against the Government and/or public bodies for not less than 5 years within the last 7 years immediately preceding the date of their application.
Candidates are asked to provide evidence of your competence in certain skills. You can best do this by providing a small number of examples of times when you demonstrated these competences. It is often helpful to remember the rubric STAR when structuring your examples. Set out the Situation you had to deal with, the Task you were entrusted with, the Actions you undertook, and the Result you achieved.
- Selection Criteria(Senior Counsel, A, B and C panels)
1.Advocacy
Demonstrate competence in advocacy work.
2.Advisory
Demonstrate competence in advisory work.
3.Public Law
(a) Demonstrate experience of working for or against the Government and/or public bodies and;
(b)demonstratean appreciation of the special demands of government litigation.
4.Judgment
Demonstrate good judgment in carriage of cases and in achieving realistic outcomes for clients, by negotiation or otherwise.
5. Written Ability
Good written communication skills/drafting ability to be evidenced by recent specimens of work (an Opinion and a Skeleton Argument) and by the completion of the application form.
6. Team working - Demonstrate competence in working with others.
- Selection Criteria (D Panel)
- The academic and professional qualifications entitling you to practice as a barrister in NorthernIreland.
- Demonstrate competence in legal research.
- Demonstrate an appreciation of the special demands of public law.
5Selection
GLSNI will appoint the candidates who appear to it to be best qualified regardless of ethnic origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, political opinion, religious belief, disability or age. It is intended to select on the basis of the written material submitted on behalf of the Applicants but the Selection Panel reserves the right to call candidates for interview.
6Short Listing
Where it is considered necessary to shortlist for any panel this will be on the basis of the proportion of time spent engaged in work associated with Essential Criterion 3(a) Public Law, as indicated by the applicant in their application form.
The GLSNI intends to select on the basis of the written material submitted on behalf of the Applicants but reserves the right to call candidates for interview.
7.Equal Opportunities Monitoring
The Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form constitutes an important element of the Application. Therefore applicants must ensure they complete and return that Form, along with their Application Form. Failure to do so will lead to the Application not being accepted and processed.
It should be noted that this form will be used for the purposes of Equal Opportunities monitoring only. This information will be treated in the strictest confidence and the Selection and Moderation Panels will not have sight of this form.
8.Reference Pro Forma
In the application form candidates for Senior, A,B, and C panels must identify two professional referees of choice, eg instructing solicitors, barristers, members of the judiciary.
The choice of referees is important. Referees who can comment with authority on an Applicant’s abilities as an advocate will be most helpful to the Selection Panel. Judicial references are particularly usefulas one of the best ways of gauging performance as an advocate.
In the application form candidates for D panel must identify one academic referee and one, such as a pupil master, who can speak to their professional abilities in a work environment.
Completed reference pro forma must be submitted by the stipulated deadline, asthe reference will form an integral part of the assessment process. It is the responsibility of applicants to ensure that references are submitted by the due date, GLSNI will not pursue any late references. Failure to ensure that references are submitted by the due date may result in your application not being accepted.
9.Closing Date For Application
All completed forms must be submitted by email no later than 12:00 Hrs on 9thJune 2017 to
10. Further Information
Queries should be made in the first instance to:-
Claire Archbold, Deputy Departmental Solicitor.Tel. 02890 251227
or Ed Boyle, Secretary to Civil Panel Recruitment 2017. Tel 02890 251182.
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ANNEX A
The Information for Applicants states that “While there is a particular need for Counsel with demonstrable knowledge of public law, the GLSNI wishes to appoint Counsel to cover a wide range of legal expertise’’. The list below is indicative of the range but should not be regarded as exhaustive:-
Administrative/public Law;
Agriculture and Fisheries Law;
Charities;
Children’s Law;
Civil Action;
Civil Recovery Work;
Company and Insolvency Law;
Condemnation Proceedings and Cash Forfeiture;
Constitutional Law;
Contempt;
Confidential information;
Contact and construction Law;
Data protection;
Defamation;
Economic Regulatory Law;
Education Human Rights;
Environmental Information Regulations
EU law;
Election Law;
Employment Law;
Environmental Law;
Extension of detention applications under the Terrorism Act;
Extradition;
Freedom of Information;
Health and Safety and any related Employer Liability Legislation
Highway Law (including the Roads Order and Street Work Order);
Human Rights;
Inquests;
Injunctions;
Immigration;
Intellectual Property Rights;
Judicial Review;
Land Law,
Landlord and Tenant
Lands Tribunal
Land Registry practice;
Parole Commission Casework;
Personal Injury;
PFI/PPP;
Planning Law;
Procurement Law;
Public Inquiries;
Production Orders;
Regulatory Investigating Power Act;
Social Security Law;
Transport Law.
ANNEX B
Terms and Conditions
The successful applicants will be required to comply with the following terms and conditions:-
1.Standards of Service
There is an expectation that all Counsel will provide a high quality service. It is expected that Counsel will ensure that court and client timescales and timetables for submission of pleadings, written advice and skeleton arguments are met. Counsel will, on appointment to a panel, be required to sign up to a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) of service standards. These will include matters such as responsiveness, compliance with instructions, performance at consultations, performance as an advocate, treating clients in a professional and courteous manner, approachability, administration of work given, client satisfaction, prioritising client’s work and timeliness of submitting fee notes.
The GLSNI may seek feedback from clients on the standard of service they receive from Counsel. Failure to meet the service standards may result in removal from the panel list.
2.Confidentiality
Counsel will be expected to provide a written assurance that:
- S/he will exercise reasonable care to ensure the security and preserve the confidentiality of all information given to Counsel in connection with Government Civil Panels work. In particular, in any case Counsel shall comply with any requirements or guidance in connection with the security and confidentiality of such information within which the person or body giving Counsel the instructions in the case (“the commissioning principal”) is required to operate. These requirements or guidance may include provision that in all or specified circumstances:-
-Counsel shall ensure all information is kept secure at all times against unauthorised or unlawful loss or disclosure;
-paper files and other records or documents containing personal, sensitive, confidential, commercial or data of a public interest nature will be kept in a secure environment;
-personal, sensitive, confidential, commercial information or data of public interest held on computers and computer systems is protected by the use of secure passwords which, where possible, have forced changes periodically;
-laptops used to hold or process personal or sensitive information given to Counsel in connection with Government Civil Panels work must be encrypted;
-individual passwords are not easily compromised; and
-Counsel is appropriately trained in the handling of all information in line with statutory requirements such as the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
- Counsel will treat in confidence any information provided by the Client in connection with Government Civil Panel’s work.
- Counsel will fully comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998; and
- S/he will annually provide, as requested by GLSNI, a signed statement of assurance that the foregoing requirements are complied with.
- Any such requirements or guidance shall be issued to Counsel as appropriate.
3.Work to be done by each panel
Members of the Senior, A, B and C panels will undertake advisory and representational work appropriate to the seniority and experience expected of members of that Panel.
Members of the D panel will:-
(a)Act in support of a more senior barrister in complex or large cases, providing research support, first drafts of pleadings or advices, and assistance in disclosure or discovery, under the direction of the more senior barrister.
(b)Carry out research or provide assistance to the commissioning principal; and provide drafting or proofing of secondary legislation, after training, under the instructions of the commissioning principal.
4.Vetting
For the conduct of particular areas of work successful applicants may be invited to undertake formal external vetting (including, where necessary, developed vetting).
5.Fees
With the exception of County Court work fees will be paid at an hourly rate as follows:
Senior Panel £180
Panel A£110
Panel B £90
Panel C £60
Panel D £30
County Court cases
- GLSNI will pay Counsel fees on the County Court scale, based on the sum awarded/settled (the “GLSNI Scale”).
- Where no award is made the fee shall be paid on the basis of the amount claimed.
- Where the provisions of Order 55, Rule 11 apply GLSNI may agree to an enhancement of fees of one-third of the GLSNI scale.
- Where there is dispute between the instructing solicitor and counsel regarding fees counsel will be entitled to have the fee reviewed by a senior lawyer in the instructing Department.
In all cases fees must be fully vouched and supported by itemized billing sufficient to meet audit requirements.
NB: (a)The terminology “brief fee” or “refresher” will only apply to areas of work where GLSNI accepts scale fees eg county court work. Payment will be made by way of an hourly rate for work done.
(b)Fee notes will be required to be submitted in a format prescribed by the GLSNI setting out, where appropriate, the relevant hourly rate and the number of hours worked. In some instances fee notes may be required to be submitted monthly.
Fee notes which are not in the prescribed format will be returned and will have to be resubmitted in the appropriate format.
Fee notes are expected to be submitted on a quarterly basis and/or within 14 days after work is completed or within 14 days of a request for submission of a fee note. In some instances the commissioning principal may require fee notes to be submitted monthly.
Files are closed 6 months after work is completed, and GLSNI reserves the right to treat failure to submit a fee note within 12months as statement of an intention to waive fees.
(c)Payment by Account NI:
Several participating units within the GLSNI make use of the services of Account NI for their transactional processing. Any changes to procedures or controls implemented by Account NI on behalf of the wider public service will also be applied to the payment of fee notes.
(d)Where a panel member takes Silk, he or she can continue to act in cases where they have already been instructed. They will do so at the rates for the panel to which they were appointed.
(e)Fees beyond those referred to above will only be paid in cases which are wholly exceptional and must be approved, in advance, by the Commissioning Principal.
(f)The Commissioning Principal reserves the right to instruct Counsel outside the Panel should this be necessary to meet the requirements of clients, particularly in relation to highly specialised areas of law or where counsel with appropriate experience are not available within the panels.
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[1]The organisations currently participating within the GLSNI include: The Crown Solicitor’s Office (CSO); The Departmental Solicitor’s Office (DSO); Land and Property Service (LPS); National Crime Agency (NCA); Food Standards Agency (FSA).
[2]The list of associated public bodies presently includes the NI Commissioner for Children and Young People; the NI Legal Services Agency of DOJ and the NI Assembly Commission. It is anticipated that the work volumes arising from associated bodies will be a small proportion of the total.