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What it’s like running a business alongside a busy practice? Iain Quirk KC, Rehna Azim and James Pereira KC share their start-up journeys
I have always had an entrepreneurial streak. I started a Chinese language school in my 20s, and a nascent litigation funding business in my early 30s. Like many barristers, I was, however, entirely focused on practice at the Bar. But over the years I kept coming across the same frustrations in dispute resolution and found myself asking a simple question: does it really have to be done this way?
That curiosity eventually led me to co-found pinqDR. The decision was driven by wanting to solve a practical problem. Spending time with solicitors, in house counsel and fellow barristers made it clear that there was scope to make parts of the process simpler and more accessible. This came to a head at a meeting with Sir Geoffrey Vos in the Royal Courts of Justice in 2023 – and from there, once I could see the opportunity, it became difficult to ignore.
People sometimes ask why I would take on another challenge alongside a busy practice. The answer is that I enjoy building things. There is a real satisfaction in taking an idea from a conversation or a sketch on paper and gradually turning it into something that people find genuinely useful. It is also intellectually refreshing: the questions are different, but the skills are surprisingly familiar.
In fact, I think barristers are often well suited to entrepreneurship. We are trained to identify the strongest and weakest points in an argument, to stress-test ideas before committing to them, and to communicate complex issues with clarity. We are accustomed to operating under pressure and adapting quickly when circumstances change. Perhaps most importantly, we are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information while remaining intellectually honest about risk. Crucially, our main job is to persuade. Those qualities are invaluable when starting a business, where persuasion is a large part of sales, fundraising, recruiting and management.
The biggest challenge for me has been accepting total uncertainty. In litigation, there are procedures, timetables and established ways of working. Building a business is much less predictable. You can spend months pursuing an idea only to discover that customers want something slightly different. Learning to listen, adapt and iterate has been just as important as having the original idea. And resilience is key – the will to just keep going!
For barristers considering a similar journey, my advice is simple. Start by speaking to potential users rather than assuming you know what they want. Be willing to test ideas early and refine them quickly. Surround yourself with people who have complementary expertise, particularly in areas outside your own experience. And do not wait for the perfect plan: progress almost always comes through iteration.
The Bar attracts independent thinkers who are comfortable taking responsibility and making difficult decisions. Those same attributes can make barristers effective founders. Not every good idea will become a successful business, but the process of trying is immensely rewarding. For me, it has broadened my perspective, introduced me to talented people outside the legal profession and allowed me to build something that has an existence independent of my own.
At an upmarket venue, amid Christmas lights, a barrister told me about the horrible day he’d had at court. He’d wanted to go home and crawl under the bedsheets. Instead, he’d dressed up and come to my Legal Style Awards. Surrounded by colleagues having a great time, he’d now remember the day as a fabulous one: ‘What you’ve created, Rehna, is wellbeing!’ It was the best compliment. Messages from judges and colleagues followed, all describing the event as the most enjoyable in the legal calendar. The Times covered it.
Let’s rewind… A discussion about the difficulties of finding a work suit that every other barrister wasn’t also wearing, evolved into an idea for a hub where lawyers could share tips on the things we often talked about: cheapest travel options to far away courts, sandwich shops nearby, hotels to stay in during lengthy trials.
The legal life is a unique one and there was no resource that offered such advice. I’m a freelance writer, so a website seemed appropriate. I paid someone to design one. My colleague Anushka came up with the name: It’s a Lawyer’s Life. ‘Like “it’s a dog’s life”,’ she added plaintively.
I wanted it to be glossy as well as practical. We are lawyers but we’re humans too and have a life beyond sensible shoes.
My blogs on wellbeing proved so popular I’ve written a book which will be released soon. Part legal memoir, part guidebook to thriving in a prestigious but relentless profession, it contains my experiences of the stresses of legal life and how I counter them, plus advice from colleagues.
Maintaining a website alongside a busy practice is hard. But when I update it, the views explode. My audience keeps me going. Digital connection is great, but nothing beats human contact. So, alongside the blog, I started a series of live events which developed into the Legal Style Awards. I didn’t have any ‘spare’ time to organise them in but when I want to do something, I make the same 24 hours more productive.
An antidote to the high-pressure world of legal practice, the awards spotlight lawyers both for their professional achievements and their individuality and presence. Some sniffed at ‘style’. I simply say: ‘No one’s advocacy skills or legal brilliance have ever been compromised by wearing a well-tailored suit.’
I organise the awards with Sophie Hicks, Chambers’ marketing director. We have partnered with luxury brands, law firms and chambers. Currently, sponsorship only covers costs but the potential for growth, as a business, is huge.
The work involved is akin to giving birth; a painful process but the result is so cute you do it all over again. The skills I transfer from legal practice are simply getting things done! In a case, it’s all up to me, much as it is with the awards.
So many barristers quietly ask how they can be considered for an award. I tell them; get your colleagues to vote for you. The nomination/win comes from your peers. That, I believe, is the crux of the popularity of the awards. There is no better accolade.
Alongside my Bar practice I am a professional coach and practitioner of a therapeutic modality called systemic constellations. My journey into coaching and therapy work was completely unplanned and unforeseen, yet now it is an aspect of my professional life that I rank as least as importantly as my Bar work.
It all started back in 2014, the year I took silk. That year I left home due to marital conflict and started getting divorced. At that time, I had already spent 18 years working like most barristers do: seven days a week, without clear boundaries, motivated by a need to constantly prove myself rather than by joy and purpose. My identity and self-esteem were bound up with work. Despite the intolerable pressures I was ‘successful’: highly ranked, prize winning and taking silk in my very early 40s. All these pressures took their toll. I came off the rails, suffered physical collapse and sought help.
One question plagued me and will be familiar to many: why couldn’t I stop working in unhealthy ways, even though I wanted to and I knew it was unsustainable? Waiting patiently in the wings was another question: is there a better way of doing this job?
Help came in the form of systemic constellations, a method of therapy which has a rigorous framework and is drawn from diverse therapeutic approaches. It incorporates somatic and phenomenological enquiry, adopts a systemic perspective – exploring issues and solutions within the wider systems that shape individual behaviour rather than viewing individuals in isolation – and is solutions-focused.
The help was so good that I trained in it myself, alongside individual and team coaching, mindfulness and neuro-linguistic programming. I eventually obtained my professional coaching certification with the International Coaching Federation (the level of certification that many full-time executive and performance coaches have).
My niche is working with professionals stuck in patterns that interfere with work performance and satisfaction. Together we find their root cause, loosen their hold, and build stronger habits, skills and perspectives in the space created. I also teach at the Centre for Systemic Constellations, mainly to psychotherapists, counsellors and coaches who want to incorporate this into their own work.
As well as my 1:1 work and teaching, I hold regular workshops in Chambers where people can bring issues or challenges to work on, and run a series of Bar training workshops (communication skills, self-resourcing, building a reflective practice, relationship skills etc.) in client chambers and at Middle Temple, where I am a Bencher.
For me, this is not any kind of side hustle. It is work I am deeply committed to with professional excellence just as I am committed to my Bar practice. My clients include not only lawyers and consultants, but also members of the public impacted by trauma, including transgenerational trauma: for example, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, migration, war, divorce, holocaust, political turmoil.
It has given me invaluable tools, insights and personal capacities that support every aspect of my Bar work – from work habits, boundaries and resilience to team working, leadership and advocacy. I find the work immensely rewarding and it offers an opportunity to give back to those in need.
Iain Quirk KC is a barrister at Essex Court Chambers, focusing on joint venture and shareholder disputes. He is also Co-Founder & CEO of pinqDR, the UK’s leading online dispute resolution platform (www.pinqDR.com).
Rehna Azim is a family law barrister at 42 BR Barristers. She is the editor of itsalawyerslife.com and founder of The Legal Style Awards.
I have always had an entrepreneurial streak. I started a Chinese language school in my 20s, and a nascent litigation funding business in my early 30s. Like many barristers, I was, however, entirely focused on practice at the Bar. But over the years I kept coming across the same frustrations in dispute resolution and found myself asking a simple question: does it really have to be done this way?
That curiosity eventually led me to co-found pinqDR. The decision was driven by wanting to solve a practical problem. Spending time with solicitors, in house counsel and fellow barristers made it clear that there was scope to make parts of the process simpler and more accessible. This came to a head at a meeting with Sir Geoffrey Vos in the Royal Courts of Justice in 2023 – and from there, once I could see the opportunity, it became difficult to ignore.
People sometimes ask why I would take on another challenge alongside a busy practice. The answer is that I enjoy building things. There is a real satisfaction in taking an idea from a conversation or a sketch on paper and gradually turning it into something that people find genuinely useful. It is also intellectually refreshing: the questions are different, but the skills are surprisingly familiar.
In fact, I think barristers are often well suited to entrepreneurship. We are trained to identify the strongest and weakest points in an argument, to stress-test ideas before committing to them, and to communicate complex issues with clarity. We are accustomed to operating under pressure and adapting quickly when circumstances change. Perhaps most importantly, we are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information while remaining intellectually honest about risk. Crucially, our main job is to persuade. Those qualities are invaluable when starting a business, where persuasion is a large part of sales, fundraising, recruiting and management.
The biggest challenge for me has been accepting total uncertainty. In litigation, there are procedures, timetables and established ways of working. Building a business is much less predictable. You can spend months pursuing an idea only to discover that customers want something slightly different. Learning to listen, adapt and iterate has been just as important as having the original idea. And resilience is key – the will to just keep going!
For barristers considering a similar journey, my advice is simple. Start by speaking to potential users rather than assuming you know what they want. Be willing to test ideas early and refine them quickly. Surround yourself with people who have complementary expertise, particularly in areas outside your own experience. And do not wait for the perfect plan: progress almost always comes through iteration.
The Bar attracts independent thinkers who are comfortable taking responsibility and making difficult decisions. Those same attributes can make barristers effective founders. Not every good idea will become a successful business, but the process of trying is immensely rewarding. For me, it has broadened my perspective, introduced me to talented people outside the legal profession and allowed me to build something that has an existence independent of my own.
At an upmarket venue, amid Christmas lights, a barrister told me about the horrible day he’d had at court. He’d wanted to go home and crawl under the bedsheets. Instead, he’d dressed up and come to my Legal Style Awards. Surrounded by colleagues having a great time, he’d now remember the day as a fabulous one: ‘What you’ve created, Rehna, is wellbeing!’ It was the best compliment. Messages from judges and colleagues followed, all describing the event as the most enjoyable in the legal calendar. The Times covered it.
Let’s rewind… A discussion about the difficulties of finding a work suit that every other barrister wasn’t also wearing, evolved into an idea for a hub where lawyers could share tips on the things we often talked about: cheapest travel options to far away courts, sandwich shops nearby, hotels to stay in during lengthy trials.
The legal life is a unique one and there was no resource that offered such advice. I’m a freelance writer, so a website seemed appropriate. I paid someone to design one. My colleague Anushka came up with the name: It’s a Lawyer’s Life. ‘Like “it’s a dog’s life”,’ she added plaintively.
I wanted it to be glossy as well as practical. We are lawyers but we’re humans too and have a life beyond sensible shoes.
My blogs on wellbeing proved so popular I’ve written a book which will be released soon. Part legal memoir, part guidebook to thriving in a prestigious but relentless profession, it contains my experiences of the stresses of legal life and how I counter them, plus advice from colleagues.
Maintaining a website alongside a busy practice is hard. But when I update it, the views explode. My audience keeps me going. Digital connection is great, but nothing beats human contact. So, alongside the blog, I started a series of live events which developed into the Legal Style Awards. I didn’t have any ‘spare’ time to organise them in but when I want to do something, I make the same 24 hours more productive.
An antidote to the high-pressure world of legal practice, the awards spotlight lawyers both for their professional achievements and their individuality and presence. Some sniffed at ‘style’. I simply say: ‘No one’s advocacy skills or legal brilliance have ever been compromised by wearing a well-tailored suit.’
I organise the awards with Sophie Hicks, Chambers’ marketing director. We have partnered with luxury brands, law firms and chambers. Currently, sponsorship only covers costs but the potential for growth, as a business, is huge.
The work involved is akin to giving birth; a painful process but the result is so cute you do it all over again. The skills I transfer from legal practice are simply getting things done! In a case, it’s all up to me, much as it is with the awards.
So many barristers quietly ask how they can be considered for an award. I tell them; get your colleagues to vote for you. The nomination/win comes from your peers. That, I believe, is the crux of the popularity of the awards. There is no better accolade.
Alongside my Bar practice I am a professional coach and practitioner of a therapeutic modality called systemic constellations. My journey into coaching and therapy work was completely unplanned and unforeseen, yet now it is an aspect of my professional life that I rank as least as importantly as my Bar work.
It all started back in 2014, the year I took silk. That year I left home due to marital conflict and started getting divorced. At that time, I had already spent 18 years working like most barristers do: seven days a week, without clear boundaries, motivated by a need to constantly prove myself rather than by joy and purpose. My identity and self-esteem were bound up with work. Despite the intolerable pressures I was ‘successful’: highly ranked, prize winning and taking silk in my very early 40s. All these pressures took their toll. I came off the rails, suffered physical collapse and sought help.
One question plagued me and will be familiar to many: why couldn’t I stop working in unhealthy ways, even though I wanted to and I knew it was unsustainable? Waiting patiently in the wings was another question: is there a better way of doing this job?
Help came in the form of systemic constellations, a method of therapy which has a rigorous framework and is drawn from diverse therapeutic approaches. It incorporates somatic and phenomenological enquiry, adopts a systemic perspective – exploring issues and solutions within the wider systems that shape individual behaviour rather than viewing individuals in isolation – and is solutions-focused.
The help was so good that I trained in it myself, alongside individual and team coaching, mindfulness and neuro-linguistic programming. I eventually obtained my professional coaching certification with the International Coaching Federation (the level of certification that many full-time executive and performance coaches have).
My niche is working with professionals stuck in patterns that interfere with work performance and satisfaction. Together we find their root cause, loosen their hold, and build stronger habits, skills and perspectives in the space created. I also teach at the Centre for Systemic Constellations, mainly to psychotherapists, counsellors and coaches who want to incorporate this into their own work.
As well as my 1:1 work and teaching, I hold regular workshops in Chambers where people can bring issues or challenges to work on, and run a series of Bar training workshops (communication skills, self-resourcing, building a reflective practice, relationship skills etc.) in client chambers and at Middle Temple, where I am a Bencher.
For me, this is not any kind of side hustle. It is work I am deeply committed to with professional excellence just as I am committed to my Bar practice. My clients include not only lawyers and consultants, but also members of the public impacted by trauma, including transgenerational trauma: for example, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, migration, war, divorce, holocaust, political turmoil.
It has given me invaluable tools, insights and personal capacities that support every aspect of my Bar work – from work habits, boundaries and resilience to team working, leadership and advocacy. I find the work immensely rewarding and it offers an opportunity to give back to those in need.
What it’s like running a business alongside a busy practice? Iain Quirk KC, Rehna Azim and James Pereira KC share their start-up journeys
Update from the Chair of the Bar
By David Green
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs, examines the forensic science underpinning hair drug testing, its evidential scope and limitations, and why it remains the gold standard for evidencing patterns of drug use in family proceedings
Unlocking your aged debt to fund your tax in one easy step. By Philip N Bristow
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, discusses the upcoming changes to pensions and Inheritance Tax and the potential impact on your financial future
Save the Children UK is the latest charity to benefit from a £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs via the company’s Giving Back initiative
The Chief Legal Officer to the Metropolitan Police, barrister Brett Welch, tells Anthony Inglese CB about his mission and the work to turn the Met around
Barrister apprenticeships – shortly to provide the fourth pathway to the Bar – are an ideal opportunity to support local talent and ‘grow your own’, say Tim Coulson and Dr Jane Dennehy
Grok around and find out – or not? Mariya Peykova investigates the nudification scandal, what the law has to say about sexually explicit deepfakes, and whether stronger regulation is needed
Oliver Lewis spotlights an overlooked yet rapidly evolving area of law – coercive and controlling behaviour within care contexts
For one night only at Middle Temple Hall (Sunday 26 July 2026) – Abigail Bright introduces the famed annual fundraising theatrical event. This year, Martin Shaw and Jason Watkins perform John Mortimer’s The Dock Brief, a mixture of farce and pathos and all in support of the work of the Kalisher Trust in its 30th year
