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You may have already seen Law is Everybody – the North Eastern Circuit’s diversity and equality feature film in which we promote the need for a richly diverse Bar reflecting the society we represent.
The law is also for everybody in terms of what it can offer as a career because it is a home for a variety of skills and personalities.
At the Bar, some of us are office- or chambers-based, researching and advising on esoteric points of law, while others appear routinely in court before judges, tribunals or juries using our persuasive powers to try and influence the outcome for our clients. For many, there is a combination of these roles in varying ratios.
I am a self-employed practitioner who specialises in crime in Leeds, and my career has given me everything I could have wanted. I can choose how and where I work, and on my own terms. Every day has been different. I have worked with a huge variety of people, from the most vulnerable and deprived, to esteemed experts in their fields, teams of impressive detectives, and terrified clients desperate to avoid a life sentence.
As a junior barrister, I put in very long hours to ensure that I impressed my clients and tribunals. I took time to build valuable relationships with court staff, counsel and junior instructing solicitors, and worked across the Circuit.
Once I had children, being self-employed there was no maternity pay (though a small state maternity allowance is available) but I was able to take off as long as I wanted and worked in a restricted way on my return. I took off all school holidays and days for important school events. I also agreed with my clerks that I would only take work at my two local courts – meaning that I could do the school run without the kids going into breakfast club. More recently, I have been able to take an extended break from court as a treat for my 50th birthday.
The degree of flexibility afforded by the chambers model of the Bar is, in my view, a significant part of its unique rewards. But such self-employment means that you are entering a profession while metaphorically setting up your own market stall for legal advice and representation. (My Indian grandmother actually thought I had such a stall and sat outside court trying to drum up business.)
It is important to think of yourself as a commercial business and understand that there is a personal cost and benefit to all members of chambers who pay for a pupillage with their time and money. They need to feel you are worthy of that investment and will repay that investment through your future commitment. Showing your dedication to the legal field, the geographical area and to the chambers, as well as demonstrating that you are the sort of person who understands the need to build a reputation and contacts and make yourself financially self-sufficient, are important aspects of applications that are sometimes overlooked.
When you commence at the Bar, it is rare to have your own work and part of your early years are often spent covering other barristers’ cases, (known as covering returns) while you build your own practice. It is how we all started and it allows for exposure to new firms of instructing solicitors and the opportunity to impress them. The last thing chambers want is a pupil or young tenant who always complains about covering ‘returns’ rather than seeing them as the opportunity that they are. So bear in mind that chambers are looking for team players who appreciate the collective nature of a set of chambers.
In almost all fields of law you will have to work with, and gain the respect of, people from all walks of life – many of whom are facing the most stressful situations of their lives. While that makes for a rewarding career and one in which you can feel like you do something of value, it also requires an important skill set which needs to be demonstrated in your applications. This includes intelligence (including emotional intelligence), empathy, persuasiveness, written and research skills etc.
Those candidates fortunate enough to have had the support to notch up wonderful achievements that allow them to show such skills should, rightly, not hesitate to describe them.
But those who have not had such opportunities and have had tougher life experiences should consider how those experiences have, in fact, shaped their personality and resulted in skills that make them uniquely suitable for the Bar.
For example, I had a complicated route to university. Having left home early, I did my A-Levels through one-year courses at night school while holding down multiple jobs to pay the bills. I ran a skateboard shop during the day, and did various pub and waitressing jobs at night. While I did mention elements of this in applications, I felt too embarrassed to make much of how hard it had been to gather qualifications in such circumstances. With hindsight, I think that these would have provided better and more concrete examples of my determination to get to the Bar than the ones I used at the time.
I spend a lot of time mentoring young people through Circuit, university and Middle Temple schemes. Frequently, I see candidates shy away from using their difficult life experiences that would positively demonstrate many skills that the Bar is looking for, such as empathy, determination, commitment, because of a wish to come across as the type of person they imagine a barrister to be. I know a young person who achieved A-Levels when homeless with high enough grades to study law at a Russell Group university. However, when asked for an example of overcoming adversity, they were reluctant to share this information because of the stigma they felt might be attached to such an experience.
A few years ago I conducted a mock interview with a student who had previously failed to get pupillage. I asked the ‘Why the Bar?’ question, only to receive the standard response about justice and helping people. After we had finished the mock interview, however, I probed further to find out when they had first heard of the job of a barrister. I was told, rather embarrassedly, that it was when their relative had been locked up as a political prisoner abroad without a lawyer, and they embarked on research to try and help them, that they were inspired to pursue such a career.
Since then, I decided to always probe further as to people’s reasons for pursuing the Bar. On another occasion, a young person who had also given me a stock answer told me in later discussions that they had actually first heard of the job of a barrister when representing themselves in their own care proceedings.
There is obviously a balance with such things, and I am not trying to persuade people to treat pupillage applications as an opportunity for a counselling session or to try and elicit sympathy. However, given the limited process of written applications and interviews, all chambers have to try and work out who will actually be a decent long-term investment. To make that assessment, we need to be able to get past the stock answers and candidates’ impressions of how they think a barrister should come across.
So, it is important to be honest with yourself about why this career, when you first heard about the job of a barrister and what it meant, why it really appeals to you, when you had to dig deep to overcome something, and when your powers of persuasion have got you out of difficult situations etc. If you have experiences that are good examples of such skills, don’t rule out relying on them just because you think it shows that you may not fit the mould of your perception of a barrister.
As a postscript, with all three candidates we together worked out a way in which they could draw upon their life experiences when answering questions that did not cross the line into a personal sob story but were used properly to exhibit their skills and achievements. All went on to secure pupillage.
Kama Melly KC is Chair of the North Eastern Circuit Women’s Forum and Deputy Head of Chambers at Park Square Barristers.
You may have already seen Law is Everybody – the North Eastern Circuit’s diversity and equality feature film in which we promote the need for a richly diverse Bar reflecting the society we represent.
The law is also for everybody in terms of what it can offer as a career because it is a home for a variety of skills and personalities.
At the Bar, some of us are office- or chambers-based, researching and advising on esoteric points of law, while others appear routinely in court before judges, tribunals or juries using our persuasive powers to try and influence the outcome for our clients. For many, there is a combination of these roles in varying ratios.
I am a self-employed practitioner who specialises in crime in Leeds, and my career has given me everything I could have wanted. I can choose how and where I work, and on my own terms. Every day has been different. I have worked with a huge variety of people, from the most vulnerable and deprived, to esteemed experts in their fields, teams of impressive detectives, and terrified clients desperate to avoid a life sentence.
As a junior barrister, I put in very long hours to ensure that I impressed my clients and tribunals. I took time to build valuable relationships with court staff, counsel and junior instructing solicitors, and worked across the Circuit.
Once I had children, being self-employed there was no maternity pay (though a small state maternity allowance is available) but I was able to take off as long as I wanted and worked in a restricted way on my return. I took off all school holidays and days for important school events. I also agreed with my clerks that I would only take work at my two local courts – meaning that I could do the school run without the kids going into breakfast club. More recently, I have been able to take an extended break from court as a treat for my 50th birthday.
The degree of flexibility afforded by the chambers model of the Bar is, in my view, a significant part of its unique rewards. But such self-employment means that you are entering a profession while metaphorically setting up your own market stall for legal advice and representation. (My Indian grandmother actually thought I had such a stall and sat outside court trying to drum up business.)
It is important to think of yourself as a commercial business and understand that there is a personal cost and benefit to all members of chambers who pay for a pupillage with their time and money. They need to feel you are worthy of that investment and will repay that investment through your future commitment. Showing your dedication to the legal field, the geographical area and to the chambers, as well as demonstrating that you are the sort of person who understands the need to build a reputation and contacts and make yourself financially self-sufficient, are important aspects of applications that are sometimes overlooked.
When you commence at the Bar, it is rare to have your own work and part of your early years are often spent covering other barristers’ cases, (known as covering returns) while you build your own practice. It is how we all started and it allows for exposure to new firms of instructing solicitors and the opportunity to impress them. The last thing chambers want is a pupil or young tenant who always complains about covering ‘returns’ rather than seeing them as the opportunity that they are. So bear in mind that chambers are looking for team players who appreciate the collective nature of a set of chambers.
In almost all fields of law you will have to work with, and gain the respect of, people from all walks of life – many of whom are facing the most stressful situations of their lives. While that makes for a rewarding career and one in which you can feel like you do something of value, it also requires an important skill set which needs to be demonstrated in your applications. This includes intelligence (including emotional intelligence), empathy, persuasiveness, written and research skills etc.
Those candidates fortunate enough to have had the support to notch up wonderful achievements that allow them to show such skills should, rightly, not hesitate to describe them.
But those who have not had such opportunities and have had tougher life experiences should consider how those experiences have, in fact, shaped their personality and resulted in skills that make them uniquely suitable for the Bar.
For example, I had a complicated route to university. Having left home early, I did my A-Levels through one-year courses at night school while holding down multiple jobs to pay the bills. I ran a skateboard shop during the day, and did various pub and waitressing jobs at night. While I did mention elements of this in applications, I felt too embarrassed to make much of how hard it had been to gather qualifications in such circumstances. With hindsight, I think that these would have provided better and more concrete examples of my determination to get to the Bar than the ones I used at the time.
I spend a lot of time mentoring young people through Circuit, university and Middle Temple schemes. Frequently, I see candidates shy away from using their difficult life experiences that would positively demonstrate many skills that the Bar is looking for, such as empathy, determination, commitment, because of a wish to come across as the type of person they imagine a barrister to be. I know a young person who achieved A-Levels when homeless with high enough grades to study law at a Russell Group university. However, when asked for an example of overcoming adversity, they were reluctant to share this information because of the stigma they felt might be attached to such an experience.
A few years ago I conducted a mock interview with a student who had previously failed to get pupillage. I asked the ‘Why the Bar?’ question, only to receive the standard response about justice and helping people. After we had finished the mock interview, however, I probed further to find out when they had first heard of the job of a barrister. I was told, rather embarrassedly, that it was when their relative had been locked up as a political prisoner abroad without a lawyer, and they embarked on research to try and help them, that they were inspired to pursue such a career.
Since then, I decided to always probe further as to people’s reasons for pursuing the Bar. On another occasion, a young person who had also given me a stock answer told me in later discussions that they had actually first heard of the job of a barrister when representing themselves in their own care proceedings.
There is obviously a balance with such things, and I am not trying to persuade people to treat pupillage applications as an opportunity for a counselling session or to try and elicit sympathy. However, given the limited process of written applications and interviews, all chambers have to try and work out who will actually be a decent long-term investment. To make that assessment, we need to be able to get past the stock answers and candidates’ impressions of how they think a barrister should come across.
So, it is important to be honest with yourself about why this career, when you first heard about the job of a barrister and what it meant, why it really appeals to you, when you had to dig deep to overcome something, and when your powers of persuasion have got you out of difficult situations etc. If you have experiences that are good examples of such skills, don’t rule out relying on them just because you think it shows that you may not fit the mould of your perception of a barrister.
As a postscript, with all three candidates we together worked out a way in which they could draw upon their life experiences when answering questions that did not cross the line into a personal sob story but were used properly to exhibit their skills and achievements. All went on to secure pupillage.
The Chair of the Bar reports back
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