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T A Silver Lining: Remote working of the Bar Liaison Committee in the time of COVID
A SILVER LINING:
REMOTE WORKING OF THE BAR LIAISON COMMITTEE IN THE TIME OF COVID
By the Chair of the BLC
It is perhaps a part of the human condition to look for the silver lining in any position however adverse. The pandemic, now some 18 months old, has certainly generated its own share of adversity for our profession and for our members but there have been some benefits.
As with the courts, the Inn’s processes went through agile and speedy modernisation in a matter of a few weeks: for the Inn’s committees, including the Bar Liaison Committee (BLC), the move from all ‘in-person’ meetings, with the option to dial in on a conference line via tabletop star-phones, to entirely remote meetings on Zoom (as it happens, other video-conferencing platforms are available) was made in a number of weeks in March and April 2020.
This short article examines the unforeseen benefits from the pandemic to the BLC of the adoption of holding meetings by videoconference.
The Bar Liaison Committee’s function was well very described by my predecessor as Chair in the 2020 Yearbook as being the ‘nerves’ of The Inner Temple. Members of the BLC sit on all the committees of the Inn and they transmit information and opinions both ways. BLC members, who represent the members of Inn who are not Benchers, are at the centre of the dialogue between the Inn and its membership. The committee consists of 36 members together with various other Inn office holders who may attend.
Prior to the pandemic BLC meetings were undoubtedly best attended in person. Dialling-in on the conference line was far from perfect – even the presence of three or four microphones on the long table amidst some 20 people did not provide clear audio from all contributors and it was hard to raise points and sometimes it was also hard for those ‘in the room’ to hear those on the line.
The move to videoconferencing was a considerable improvement – of necessity all participants have their own microphone and all those attending have an equal opportunity to flag a wish to speak.
One of the purposes of the BLC is to ensure representation across the Inn’s membership and especially those based outside London – this aspect has really benefitted from the move to remote meetings. Each of the six Circuits have representatives on the BLC. Understandably it was, and is, frequently not possible for these representatives physically to attend a meeting at 5.15pm on a Monday in the Inn and the new method of holding meetings has made much easier their involvement.
The numbers attending the meetings are revealing and show the unexpected benefit of the move the remote meetings.
Pre-pandemic attendance in 2019 showed that attendance in person peaked in April of that year at 12 in person and 8 by conference call. The lowest was in July 2019 with 7 attending in person and 8 via conference call. The average was roughly 8 in person and 8 on the phone thus 16 attendees in total.
Having switched to Zoom from the April 2020 meeting the average attendance was significantly higher. There were 28 attending that first Zoom meeting with representatives from 5 of the 6 Circuits.
Of course, the initial high attendance may also have been connected to the lockdown itself – members perhaps with more time on their hands may have played a part, together with the important business on the agenda regarding the measures to support the worst affected members during the pandemic.
However the statistics show that the increase in attendance has proved sustained and broad based.
In the remaining months the attendance averaged at 25 peaking at 29 in October 2020. Following the elections in November 2020 numbers crept up again peaking at 30 in February 2021. So far this year the average attendance has been 25.3.
All in all we can safely conclude that one of the small benefits of the difficulties of dealing with Covid is that the BLC is now better attended and is as result more able represent all our members across the country. Indeed it also now the routine practise that even if circuit representatives are unable to attend BLC meetings, they regularly provide monthly updates.
This change, with all the benefits of wider and more effective representation, is here to stay. We plan to continue to facilitate as wide an attendance as possible. Future BLC meetings, once the Treasury building has re-opened will be hybrid – so whilst some may choose to attend in person, joining by videoconference will always be an option. This will help to ensure that opinions and concerns of members across the country are voiced by the BLC and indeed across the other committees of the Inn.
Simon Murray
Chair of the Bar Liaison Committee
