The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Court of Appeal was established by Order in Council in 1976. As far as I am aware, it sat once in the 1980s, and existed only on paper until the end of 2023, when it was resurrected to deal with a surge in litigation in the lower courts largely arising out of a very particular set of circumstances, where the need for justice to be seen to be done is particularly acute. The posts of Registrar, Justices of Appeal and President were advertised through the Judicial Appointments Commission, which also conducted the selection process. Following that process, I was fortunate enough to be appointed Registrar.

The Registrar, a fee-paid role, takes the judicial oath and is part Master of Civil and Criminal Appeals, part costs judge and part legal officer. The role has, thus far, been truly fascinating. All with an eye to the unique context of the territory, and under the leadership of the President, it has involved playing a part in the creation of the court’s infrastructure from scratch, addressing the myriad of issues arising out of the state of the unmodernised procedural rules, and in assisting in the case management of appeals, which are already trickling through.

Why did I do it? I am happily in practice at the Family Bar in London, have been for some time, and have no plans to stop. I suppose it is because I have always had a sense that the Bar has many opportunities for a breadth of different experiences, and that such experiences assist one’s development as a lawyer. I have always valued my brief stint as a trainee solicitor at a City firm where attention to detail was an obsessive cardinal virtue. Likewise, had I not spent time as a judicial assistant, I doubt my drafting and my approach to cases would have been sufficiently honed to get me through the pupillage process, which I only just scraped through even then. Doing pupillage at a mixed set provided a healthy and balanced pupillage experience and, while I happily practise exclusively in family cases now, all aspects of that background have proved useful in my day-to-day professional life. Those experiences, whether simply at the right moment or at the right time, instilled in me a greater confidence or perhaps just a better sense of what an issue might be or how to approach it, and have been invaluable.

Acting as Registrar is no different. The role requires a completely different approach to that I would adopt as an advocate. I have taken the judicial oath but much of the role is public-facing, and acting as an interface between the parties and the court. I very much hope that this different perspective has made (and continues to make) me a better lawyer.

Some of the time management aspects have not been easy, not least because the Registrar role has a different rhythm to that of practice at the Bar. It can be a challenge to attend meetings during working hours, particularly when arranged at short notice and you have long been briefed to attend court at that time. Likewise, you can have your own deadline for a skeleton argument, and yet you also need to have an eye on whether parties have been complying with the BIOT Court of Appeal’s directions. However, for the most part, the flexibility the Bar provides does enable both roles to be done, in the same way as many barristers take on substantive fee-paid judicial roles.

This is a role I am enjoying very much. There are many similar opportunities out there that will help you develop as an advocate and consider new perspectives. These are also roles which those of us at the Bar are ideally suited to bring something to – they need you! Go for it and good luck.