In May, 4 New Square chambers opted not to sack one its pupils, Henry Mostyn, after he was caught by police with cocaine and ecstasy while queuing outside a Shoreditch nightclub.
Some admired 4 New Square’s liberalism. Others questioned whether Mostyn had been made a special case of by virtue of his high profile father, High Court judge Sir Nicholas Mostyn QC.
Meanwhile, there were murmurings that Mostyn had merely been given a stay of execution and that 4 New Square was not planning to keep him on when he finished his pupillage in the summer.
Well, those murmurings proved right…
Last Thursday, 4 New Square welcomed Mostyn’s fellow pupil, Michael Ryan, as a new tenant at the set. But no mention was made of the fate of Mostyn himself, whose profile remains on 4 New Square’s website. This morning, though, the chambers’ chief practice manager, Lizzy Stewart, confirmed that Mostyn hadn’t been kept on.
Eton and Oxford-educated Mostyn could be in for a difficult time if he perseveres with a career at the Bar.
As Richard Todd QC put it while defending Mostyn at his May Bar Standards Board (BSB) disciplinary hearing: “The caution [given by the police to Mostyn when he was caught with the drugs] itself has an impact – it will have a bearing on future applications, whether for [crown court] recorder or Queen’s Counsel.”
Todd added: “It is going to have an impact on visas and a very lucrative line of work – working overseas…Mr Mostyn wants to work in the commercial work and it may well be he’ll have to forget about that.”
