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An international career in court work can be – and in my case has been – at least as much to do with luck as it has been to actual design. For those who agree that practically every aspect of a career at the Bar comes with significant risk, please read on.
As to the basis for presuming to offer my views to others on the subject: I am now admitted in, and practise across, 12 jurisdictions in addition to my original admission to the Bar of England and Wales. Most of those, but not all, are in the Caribbean region.
The practical implications of the COVID-19 situation on court sittings has been something of an ‘accelerator’ in terms of maximising the practice flexibility that a foothold in that number of jurisdictions brings. Gone (or at least postponed) are the wasted days in small airports.
None of the jurisdictions in which I am admitted outside of England and Wales required separate exams. All have procedural and substantive systems of law very recognisable for anyone with a training background of the Bar of England and Wales. Several have a relatively easy route of appeal to the Privy Council (for now, at least). A couple of these jurisdictions required nominal periods of ‘supervision’ (without any syllabus) pre-call. It will not surprise you to hear that there are worse places to wait out that period of not being on your feet in court than a Caribbean island.
Each of the jurisdictions in which I got admitted to the Bar reflected active work involvement. A couple of the admissions were relatively expensive in terms of court fees; I swallowed the cost as a way of staying on an existing case in order both to help the client and get my face known somewhere new. The so-called danger of falling outside of the mainstream career path by working largely outside of England and Wales pre-supposes both that such a path still exists and also that you should follow that if it does. Very different to how it was put to me when I left England in 2000, the decision is no longer a binary one. The scope for an overlapping (onshore/international) practice only continues to improve. I would take the risk again, but the risk is noticeable smaller now anyway.
Some of the overseas Bar admissions are a well-trodden path, especially by the London commercial Bar. To have real impact in the Caribbean region you will need more than those. One jurisdiction has a nationality requirement for full (as opposed to case-specific) admission. Another requires residence of a year pre-admission and has a case-specific admission possible only for Queen’s Counsel.
So, is some homework necessary? Yes. In my view, has it been worth the effort? Also, yes. Whether the last two decades in practice mostly overseas have provided me with variety of work and experience that I could have matched simply by not leaving England in the first place is obviously impossible ever to know. That said, and in an effort to try and help others, here are some of the things I would say to my younger self before I left the Northern Circuit and ventured forth:
An international career in court work can be – and in my case has been – at least as much to do with luck as it has been to actual design. For those who agree that practically every aspect of a career at the Bar comes with significant risk, please read on.
As to the basis for presuming to offer my views to others on the subject: I am now admitted in, and practise across, 12 jurisdictions in addition to my original admission to the Bar of England and Wales. Most of those, but not all, are in the Caribbean region.
The practical implications of the COVID-19 situation on court sittings has been something of an ‘accelerator’ in terms of maximising the practice flexibility that a foothold in that number of jurisdictions brings. Gone (or at least postponed) are the wasted days in small airports.
None of the jurisdictions in which I am admitted outside of England and Wales required separate exams. All have procedural and substantive systems of law very recognisable for anyone with a training background of the Bar of England and Wales. Several have a relatively easy route of appeal to the Privy Council (for now, at least). A couple of these jurisdictions required nominal periods of ‘supervision’ (without any syllabus) pre-call. It will not surprise you to hear that there are worse places to wait out that period of not being on your feet in court than a Caribbean island.
Each of the jurisdictions in which I got admitted to the Bar reflected active work involvement. A couple of the admissions were relatively expensive in terms of court fees; I swallowed the cost as a way of staying on an existing case in order both to help the client and get my face known somewhere new. The so-called danger of falling outside of the mainstream career path by working largely outside of England and Wales pre-supposes both that such a path still exists and also that you should follow that if it does. Very different to how it was put to me when I left England in 2000, the decision is no longer a binary one. The scope for an overlapping (onshore/international) practice only continues to improve. I would take the risk again, but the risk is noticeable smaller now anyway.
Some of the overseas Bar admissions are a well-trodden path, especially by the London commercial Bar. To have real impact in the Caribbean region you will need more than those. One jurisdiction has a nationality requirement for full (as opposed to case-specific) admission. Another requires residence of a year pre-admission and has a case-specific admission possible only for Queen’s Counsel.
So, is some homework necessary? Yes. In my view, has it been worth the effort? Also, yes. Whether the last two decades in practice mostly overseas have provided me with variety of work and experience that I could have matched simply by not leaving England in the first place is obviously impossible ever to know. That said, and in an effort to try and help others, here are some of the things I would say to my younger self before I left the Northern Circuit and ventured forth:
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