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By Bill Altreuter

The bench and bar in Britain want to update their look. This is a very bad plan, as the illustration accompanying this post demonstrates. It is true that the horsehair wig Brit barristers wear resembles a dead cat. It is also true that the English legal tradition, and the quality of English lawyering in general have a legendary status that gives them the sort of brand name recognition that is unique in the world. Only American lawyers enjoy anything approaching the same sort of prestige in the world, and since we are unique in that we perform our legerdemain before juries our prowess is seen as somewhat suspect elsewhere. English lawyers and English judges have a look that works-- they should stick with it.

"If humanizing the judicial profession was the aim of this makeover, it is interesting that Betty Jackson decided that the outfit best suited for this would be one that looks like something an alien android with menacing religious undertones would wear when waging war with Doctor Who," sniffed the Guardian?s deputy fashion editor, Hadley Freeman." Exactly. The robes and the other acquirements, like the purse that is worn in the back, so that the advocate is not influenced by the size of his fee-- this stuff has the weight of tradition that should not be lightly disposed of.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on May 15, 2008 (boomark / email).