Polling underway at Vic’s Bar ‘n’ Grill … Whether to decamp from the Law Council … Facts and figures in dispute … Secret correspondence from lofty sources … Emails and messages getting more heated … Contentions … Cases for stay and go 

Vic’s Bar is scheduled to decamp from the LCA on June 30, and the national lawyers’ body has been making a last-ditch effort to keep Yarraside’s briefs onboard. 

In the latest flurry of claims and counter-claims, Christopher Blanden QC, Vic’s heavyweight president, claims that his counterpart at the LCA, Jacoba Brasch QC, has been sending misleading information to selective and “various (unidentified) members of our bar”. 

In an email dated June 20, and addressed to “Ms Christopher Blanden QC”, Dr Brasch said that information in Vic’s fact sheet and leave paper “contain significant inaccuracies and misunderstandings which cannot be left uncorrected”. 

This inflamed the Vic bar president no end, and he told his rank and file on Monday (June 21): 

“I wish to make it clear. That the bar council categorically rejects the assertion of inaccuracy in the information provided to members.”  

He suggests that “as a consequence of this correspondence” anyone who wishes to change their vote in the leave-or-stay members’ poll would be welcome to do so. The poll is open till Monday, June 28. 

In her June 20 “Ms Blanden” letter (link below), Doc Brasch corrected the bar president on several fronts. 

On capitation fees she said the figures distributed by Vic’s bar are incorrect. 

“The relevant fee which the Victorian bar paid to the Law Council for each member is not $110 per member (president update 2), but $53 per member for FY 2021; the relevant fee set for FY 2022 will be $78 per member.” 

Further, she says: 

“Vic bar fees to the LCA would not be $230,000 for FY 2022 (president updates 1 & 2), but are estimated to be E$173,000, based on $78 a head … 

That earlier and incorrect information was provided to Victorian bar members, notwithstanding that the Victorian bar president, appointed Law Council director and various staff receive the detailed Law Council directors’ papers each quarter.” 

Those papers show how the capitation fee was set at $53 for FY 2021, a 50 percent reduction in fees on the previous year, and $78 for FY 2022. Even before Covid-related disruptions the LCA resolved on November 2019 that “the capitation fee for 2021 shall be reduced to $85 per member”. 

“… it is wrong to assert that the increase in fees shows ‘no signs of abating’.” 

Doc Brasch also rejected the notion from Yarraside that the LCA “should be a matter of individual choice”. 

She calmly pointed out, as she has done repeatedly, this cannot be done under the current constitution of the LCA. It’s all in or none in.

The current Yarraside regime is greatly fussed about whether members are getting value for money – how much is being lavished on LCA perks, travel and payments to elected members of the executive. 

Figures from earlier reports show travel and meetings together cost $1.7 million in 2018 and $2.6 mullion in 2019. 

It turns out that President Brasch has declined to take her stipend which is set at 72 percent of a Federal Court judge’s base salary. She also declined to take it last year when she was president-elect. 

In the past five years, three of the current and past presidents the LCA have accepted the stipend payment, while two out of five presidents-elect trousered the money. 

Brasch adds that if Victorian barristers think the Australian Bar Association will be a suitable alternative to the LCA – forget it. 

It has no policy capacity, no staff and no body of work on which to call. 

“The ABA is simply unable to make a submission on legal matters and matters of public policy in any way comparable to the breadth and depth with which the LCA is able.” 

It also seems Bret Walker SC “has made some high-level suggestions” about the structure and shape of the Law Council board. 

Brasch also rejected the notion that the LCA is a “union advocating for the self-interest of its members”. She sees it as a “federation of all Australian law societies and bar associations sharing the immeasurable benefit of being part of a respected national organisation …”