Stuff and nonsense

Referring to the president of the Law Society’s fear that solicitor advocates might be mistaken for mere ushers (25/ LL p46) Bryan Woodhams, solicitor advocate of Liverpool, wrote in the Law Society’s Gazette of 23 March that the Lord Chancellor’s Practice Direction on court dress of 1994 states that counsel wear a short wig and ‘stuff gown with bands’ and that solicitors and other authorised advocates wear a ‘black stuff gown and bands, but no wig’. Mr Woodhams observed that as the stuff gown worn by barristers is also black, and there does not appear to be any difference between one stuff gown and another, solicitors are entitled to wear the same gowns as barristers. There is no reason why they should walk around wearing ushers’ gowns.