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Dear all
Please see below our latest Northern Circuit News Update
Any requests to include information for future Circuit News Updates - which will be sent to all members and judicial members of circuit (current and retired), pupils and chambers’ senior clerks for dissemination - should be sent to Clare Calder.
Circuit events:
Manchester Grand Court - 2 April 2026
Venue: Midland Hotel Peter Street, Manchester, M60 2DS
MP Court visit - 10 April 2026
Venue: Chester Crown Court
Esther McVey MP (Con, Tatton) will be in the robing room at lunchtime to speak to barristers directly and find out more information about jury trials. Please attend if you are able to do so to ensure she is properly informed.
Northern Circuit v the Irish Bar hockey and rugby fixtures and mess – 9 May 2026
Venues:
(Fixtures) Broughton Park FC, 2 Houghend Crescent, Off Mauldeth Road West, Manchester, M21 7TL
(Mess) The Lowry Hotel, 50 Dearmans Place, Salford, Manchester, M3 5LH
The Northern Circuit is hosting the Irish Bar for the annual rugby and hockey fixtures. The rugby will kick off at approximately 11.00am and hockey will push back at approximately 2.00pm. Lunch for players and supporters will be laid on from approximately 1.00pm. There is a bar available on site that will be open all day. The games will be followed by a mess at The Lowry Hotel, 6.30pm for 7.15pm.
Please could all those wishing to play contact Holly Nelson (hockey) or Sam Watson (rugby). Please email them if you have any questions about the event.
Tickets can be booked at the following link. For those without access to the Northern Circuit Members’ Area, please contact Clare Calder. Tickets are priced at £50. Members under three years’ call pay only £25 and pupils are free.
Northern Circuit Advocacy Committee International Expert Witness Training Weekend – 15 to 17 May 2026
Venue: Lancaster House Hotel, Green Ln, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4GJ
Places are still available, particularly for civil and family practitioners. Click here for further details of the course and costs. The event is open to non-members.
For all bookings for mess and the expert witness training weekend, please can members use themembers area via the website. Retired or non-members should contact Clare Calder.
Pupil Supervisor Training - 21 May 2026
Venue: By Zoom
This course is for first time pupil supervisors and those who require refresher training. Members should book on here and non-members should contact Clare.
Other events:
Funeral service for Sue Wright – 16 March 2026 at 1.00pm
Please note the arrangements for Sue’s funeral circulated last week have changed. The funeral service will now take place at St Nicholas Church, 21 Newport Ave, Wallasey, CH45 8QJ at 1.00pm with the reception at Neston Cricket Club from 4.00pm onwards.
FLBA Young Bar Sub-Committee seminar - 26 March 2026 at 6.00pm to 7.00pm
Venue: By Zoom
Meeting ID: 890 5225 7340
Passcode: 078588
The Young Bar sub-committee are delighted to announce a seminar entitled From the junior bar to the Bench and is aimed at members of the junior bar who aspire to judicial office. The seminar will feature insights from three recently appointed members of the judiciary including Circuit’s District Judge Jack Harrison.
Funeral service for Stephen Meadowcroft KC – 28 March 2026 at 2.00pm
Venue: Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 48 Knutsford Road, Alderley Edge, SK9 7SF
A copy of the announcement with further details is attached to this Circuit Update. All are welcome.
In Brief deadline for submissions – 7 April 2026
Please send any articles (and photos with captions where appropriate) to the Editor, Olivia Mukherjee or to the sub Editor, Jack Barber .
Olivia and Jack are looking for someone to write an article for In Brief about this weekend’s congratulatory dinner on 14 March 2026 in Liverpool, which is being held to congratulate Sir Tim Holroyde, Edis LJ, Yip LJ, Dove LJ and Cawson J . Please contact Jack if you are willing to assist.
Mark George KC Memorial Lecture – 21 April 2026 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Venue: University of Manchester, Roscoe Building Theatre B, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL.
The second Mark George KC Memorial Lecture will explore the topic of wrongful convictions, a subject about which Mark campaigned extensively.
Speakers will include Pete Weatherby KC, Anna Morris KC and Mira Hammad of Garden Court North together with Matt Foot (Director of APPEAL), Professor Claire McGourlay (University of Manchester), and Chris Peace & Kate Flannery (Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign).
A link to the booking page is here. Please direct any questions to Alex Blair , GNC’s Communications Manager.
Tickets for the following events remain available
For information about booking, please follow the links in the 27 February 2026 update:
PIBA Conference for Junior Practitioners – 16th May 2026
Venue: Deans Court Chambers
Bereavement service for children training event – 2 July 2026
Venue: Manchester Civil Justice Centre
Manchester Legal Walk – 4 July 2026
Venue: Manchester/Salford Quays
Other updates:
Justice needs Juries Campaign
The Courts and Tribunals Bill had its Second Reading debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday 10 March and has now been sent to a Public Bill Committee, which will scrutinise the Bill.
I will be giving evidence to a Select Committee on the afternoon of Wednesday 25 March 2026 on behalf of Circuit. I expect I will be asked about aspects of the Bill relating to both jury trialsand the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement. I am calling on Circuit for help and would welcome the views of any member of Circuit who wishes to share them with me. Please email me as soon as possible, putting ‘Courts and Tribunals Bill’ in the subject line.
Advocate – ATP donations
It is not too late to support the work of Advocate, the Bar’s pro bono charity by ticking the box to donate £35 when renewing your Authorisation to Practise (ATP) on MyBar. Please do so if you can. Your donation will help Advocate connect litigants in person to expert representation that can change the course of their lives.
Judicial Appointments Commission - District Judges (Magistrates’ Courts) recruitment
The details of 30 vacancies can be found here. The closing date is 24 March 2026
Community:
I want to thank a number of people who have stepped up on behalf of Circuit in the last couple of weeks. You have made me proud to be your Leader.
The Bar Council’s visit to the Northern Circuit on 5 and 6 March 2026 was extremely successful, thanks to Circuit Junior Issy Denn White and Kate Burnell KC (Liverpool) and Circuit Treasurer Sarah Magill, Julie Taylor and Tim Storrie KC (Preston). Each of them managed the days brilliantly, showcasing the best of our Circuit. Kirsty Brimelow KC and her team were very impressed and went away much better informed about how we practice here on the Northern Circuit.
I also thank HHJ Wood KC in Liverpool (and Mrs Wood for the delicious home-made cakes) and HHJ Altham, HHJ Bancroft and HHJ Beech in Preston for their warm welcomes as well as all the other judges who took time out to speak to Kirsty and her team.
St John’s Buildings and 15 Winckley Square hosted the Bar Council wonderfully in Liverpool and Preston and I thank the staff in both sets of chambers for their efforts.
Thanks also to those members of Circuit who answered the call to swell the numbers for Liverpool Grand Court to show Kirsty and her team how we do it on the Northern Circuit. As well as our new electees (Samuel Barker, Darcie Clampitt, Derryn Gibney, Niamh Long, Molly Rigby, Lara Webber and James Woods), we congratulated in fine style Anna Pope on her silk appointment and Emanuela Ackon on the birth of her fourth baby (just two weeks earlier and during pupillage – what a woman!).
I would also like to thank Sally Penni who volunteered to assist with the Young Citizens Bar Mock Trials National Final and Steering Group. We hope Sally’s Women in the Law UK annual dinner in Manchester on 19 March 2026 is as successful as ever. The Northern Circuit executive committee will be there on the night to support her.
WICL hosted the fabulous Women’s Faces Project event on 9 March 2026 at Manchester Crown Square which was livestreamed with the co-ordinated events taking place in Sheffield and Southwark. It was a pleasure to attend, to speak to the WICL committee members and their supporters and to hear from HHJ Dean KC about the trailblazing Northern Circuit women - Rose Heilbron QC, Edith Hesling, Elizabeth Lane and Nicola Gatto – whose photographs, amongst others, were unveiled and will now quite rightly grace the wall in the robing room at Crown Square for years to come.
By the time of the next Circuit Update, Phil Barnes (Nine),
Martin Carter (Kings), Simon Gurney (Lincoln House), Anna Pope (Linenhall), Vanessa Thomson (Nine) and Thomas Williams (Kings) will have donned their breeches, shined their buckled shoes and received their Letters Patent. On behalf of Circuit, I wish them a truly glorious day. Huge congratulations to them all.
I look forward to seeing all of those attending this weekend’s congratulatory mess at St George’s Hall in Liverpool. It promises to be a magnificent event thanks to Issy Denn White, Clare Calder and the former Circuit Juniors who have been involved in the planning. We can be as proud of them as we are of our esteemed honourands. Our former Leader Jaime Hamilton KC is fond of saying the Northern Circuit is the best of the circuits. I am confident this weekend will provide yet further evidence he is right.
It has been a busy few weeks since the start of January but my daffodils are up, brighter days are coming and the end of term is in sight. I thank all those who have been kind enough to contact me to offer their support, encouragement and words of wisdom. There are too many of you to mention but you know who you are.
As ever, please feel free to get in touch with me if there are any matters of which you think I should be made aware.
My very best wishes to you all
Sam Hillas KC
Leader of the Northern Circuit
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